CSR refers to where businesses incorporate social issues into their business processes with a holistic approach. It is a way for organizations to apply their business ethics and values while also making positive social impacts. It is much different than donating to a cause.
We design customized CSR strategies aligned with your company’s vision & mission, ethics &values, policies & expertise, products& processes and stakeholder expectations and create a road map for short-term and long-term goals. We drive effective implementation leading to long-lasting impacts to derive a value of the initiatives and communicate these impacts to the diverse set of stakeholders.
Value of integrating CSR
CSR provides businesses an opportunity to reap reputational rewards, to engage and empower a diverse set of stakeholders, to make positive impacts on key social issues and helps businesses to see beyond mere compliance.
Strategizing CSRA strategic approach to CSR plays a role of an innovative tool and rational investment opportunities for any organization. Our team is well equipped with rich experience and research rigor with creative thinking and developing strategies to CSR that align with their business strategy. The span of our services encompasses defining policy, designing projects, measuring and evaluating the outcomes against national and global guidelines, frameworks and standards and communicating the social footprints with stakeholders.
CSR provides a distinctive opportunity to demonstrate the organization’s social responsibility. A sound and effective CSR strategy, aligning with the business objectives, besides enriching reputation, it reaps the higher return on investment, strengthened relations with the local community, increased employee engagement, customer loyalty, cost saving and much more.
Legal requirements in IndiaIndia has pioneered a CSR mandate expenditure and to seek standardization of the CSR programs, it’s execution and disclosure of their impacts through a CSR reporting using national / global guidelines, frameworks, and standards.
The New Companies Act in India requires specificIndian companies (based on market capitalization) to spend 2% of their average net profits (from the previous three financial years) towards CSR expenditure and to disclosed the impacts.
CSR mandate
- Companies having a net worth of INR five hundred crore or more,
- Companies have a turnover of INR one thousand crore or more,
- Companies have a net profit of INR five crore or more.
Additionally, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has mandated the largest businesses in India to file an Annual Business Responsibility Report (ABRR) . This reporting can be done in following ways:
1. As a part of Annual Financial Report
2. As a separate CSR / Sustainability Report, using…
- SEBI-BRR format
- National Voluntary Guidelines for Social, Economical and Environmental reporting, issued by MCA – NVG-SEE
- Global Reporting Framework
The ABBR reports requires to describe the measures undertaken by organizations on the 9 key principles of the National Voluntary Guidelines for Social, Environmental and Economic Responsibilities.(The NVG-SEE). SEBI has also prescribed a format for businesses to report their CSR impacts.
The NVG-SEE was released by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs-MCA and is formulated to encourage the adoption of corporate sustainability reporting with a view to making reporting a mainstream activity. The guidelines can be adopted by any businesses entity, regardless of size, scale, sector, location or ownership. The NVG is designed with an "Apply or Explain" principle, where businesses need to either report or explain why they are not in a position to report at this time.
