Corporate Social Responsibility in India: Cases and Developments After the Legal Mandate

This book provides a comprehensive overview of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Indian corporations following the 2013 legal mandate on corporate spending of profits for CSR. Bringing together authors hailing from diverse walks of life, the book pursues a ’hands-on’ approach, with real-world case studies and examples that help the reader feel the dynamic pulse of India immediately after the ratification of the CSR mandate in the Companies Act, 2013. The Act is expected to affect over 16,300 companies with an estimated flow of approximately 200 billion Indian rupees into the economy every year, thus shaking the foundations of business and society and impacting the country at multiple stakeholder levels. As a result, India is likely to become the birthplace of social, economic, and environmental transformation through financial investments in CSR!

In order to insightfully reflect on this transition, this book has been divided into three parts. The first part presents the CSR mandate and its implications, while the second focuses on its implementation and the third part provides a view on the way forward.

The book helps to reveal the various layers of CSR in an emerging economy like India and is expected to spark debate, discussion and research among policy-makers, consultants, academics, practitioners and other stakeholders the world over, which will further expand its contribution to CSR literature and open up new vistas in CSR research.

＂This is indeed a first of its kind book and marks a watershed in the journey of CSR. It is an extremely important contribution to the body of knowledge in the area of CSR and Corporate Governance in emerging economies that is driven by a completely different set of challenges, opportunities and requirements from that of developed economies.＂

Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, Director General & CEO, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs

Ms. Nayan Mitra comes with a rich mix of diverse professional experience of over sixteen years, straddling seamlessly between academics, social and corporate sectors. She has long years of experience in teaching and coaching undergraduate, post graduate students and corporate members; been a resource person in eminent Institutions of higher learning in the areas of CSR and Corporate Governance; Academic Council member in International Conferences like the International Conference on CSR, Sustainability, ethics and Governance; has important peer reviewed research publications to her credit in international and national Academic journals and books, such as the Asian Journal of Business Ethics (Springer), International Journal of Business Ethics in Developing Economies, (All India Management Association) AIMA Journal for Management & Research; has conducted several social researches for multi-lateral agencies, the findings of which have become important basis for sustainable action; Chaired and presented at various international and national conferences. Her research interest lies in charting the developmental curve of India and documenting its transformation from an emerging nation to a developed economy. As a Developmental Consultant and a Researcher, she works closely with some of the eminent Corporations and civil societies of India; is also a pro-bono member of the Advisory Council and is in the Board of some of the eminent NGOs, whose work has received exemplary status in international and national circuits. She was a finalist of the prestigious Chevening Gurukul Scholarship for Leadership and Excellence (2013), as conferred by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) of the British Deputy High Commission for her contribution.
Prof. Dr. René Schmidpeter holds the Dr. Juergen Meyer Endowed Chair of International Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility at Cologne Business School (CBS), Germany. He is also a professor at the Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, China; Adjunct Professor at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia and the academic head of the Zentrum für humane Marktwirtschaft (Centre for Humane Market Economy) in Salzburg, Austria. For more than 15 years, he has worked and done research in the field of corporate social responsibility. He edited several publications on CSR for Springer, for example CSR in Europe (2015), Sustainable Entrepreneurship (2014), Social Innovation (2013) and Corporate Social Responsibility (2012/2015). He is a series editor for Springer’s CSR, Sustainability, Ethics and Governance books, a section editor of the Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility (ECSR) and an editor of the Dictionary of Corporate Social Responsibility (DCSR) as well as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of CSR (Springer).