CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) AND ITS MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

The concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), triple bottom line philosophy, and Caroll’s pyramid of CSR have been discussed in the introduction. In the present business environment companies are more inclined towards corporate social responsibility, which builds their value system. As a part of corporate governance, the organization initiative for being responsible to the society ensures that the business is ethical. It is been widely as a strategy of being social and ethical towards the society. CSR initiative helps the company to take care of economic, social, environmental, legal and ethical matters towards society and its stakeholders. The major stakeholders are people & communities, employees, investors, regulatory agencies and government compliances. The company’s operations and business practices should be ethical and sustainable. CSR activities are not philanthropic activities.     

Companies Act. 2013 guides for the establishment and execution of companies.Corporate SocialResponsibility as a provision for constitution, formulation and execution of activities, has got its provision under Companies Act 2013. This provision is in force from April, 2014. The applicability of CSR, compliances to be undertaken and permitted sectors for CSR is also studied.

Further, the amendments notified by the government of India are effective from 22^nd January, 2021 onwards.  It includes the Company rule 2014. It has been highlighted in the companies’ act 2013 under the section 135. As on dates these amendments are active. The government of India made few modificationsduring the pandemicin CSR Rules, those changes and its implications are also highlighted.

Covid-19 pandemic itself is a history in many ways. The pandemic hits and disturbs the world in many ways. Increasingly it is the most dangerous and primitive pandemic in the future. In a report to the G20 meeting held recently in Venice Italy, the panel mentioned that close to 15 billion dollar is recommended for double current spending. For the next five years government has to prepare with 75 billion US dollar for its expenses. This pandemic has created lot disruptions in supply chains and business models. Every one learnt to live in new normal with always social distancing, face mask, & sanitization (SMS) and work from home (WFH) / working from remote.

On peoples’ life front, this pandemic has caused damages to life. The most affected countries are G8 nations, Argentina, Colombia and Italy. According to World Health Organization (WHO) report total numbers of cases reported are 27.18 crores, cumulative deaths 53.20 lakhs and newly reported cases 7.15 lakhs.

COVID-19 pandemic cycle 1 and cycle 2 put together have created lots of business loss, economic loss and disturbance in peoples’ life. Many sectors have been affected greatly by this pandemic. The important sectors are: manufacturing including MSMEs, tourism & travel industry, export oriented business units and essential food sectors. But, some of the sectors like pharmaceutical, medical / life supporting systems, e-Commerce, insurance sector and online education have performed extremely well during this Covid-19 pandemic times..

During COVID-19 pandemic the poorly performed sectors are travel & tourism and manufacturing and also fairly performed sectors like insurance, E-commerce and healthcare. The supply chain constraints of manufacturing sector and services are also discussed here. Especially in the SCM process there is a deficit supply / zero supply of raw material in many cases. In the digital era, AI, Big data, Augmented Reality/ Virtual Reality, ML, IoT and Blockchain Technology and its significance are also highlighted here.

Individuals and business firms have learned many lessons during Covid-19 pandemic time’s i.e during the end of 2019 to till the end of 2021. Individuals have adopted new way of life i.e new normal. Social distancing, face Masking and Sanitization (popularly used as ‘SMS’) were constantly advocated by the healthcare personnel and the government agencies. Essentially, people have started buying essentials like food items, medicines, grocery, agricultural products, pulses etc. Due to short supplies or no supply of these items consumers attitude towards buying have changed a lot, i.e panic buying, online buying, and stocking items more than the required quantities.

In this chapter, the CSR meaning, importance, the various provisions like the applicability of CSR, compliances to be undertaken and permitted sectors for CSR are discussed. Further, the relevant changes brought in by COVID-19 are also explained. The second part of this chapter includes the business implications of COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain management challenges faced by the companies and evolving of new business practices and models are also highlighted. Few cases on CSR covering the best practices and Covid-19 pandemic & its implications are also discussed.