NEW DELHI: Corporate India collectively spent Rs. 8,691 cr on corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes during FY 2018-19. Woman executives are playing important role taking ahead CSR culture within the organisation.
According to KPMG’s India CSR survey report 2019, around 62% of these companies have a woman member on their CSR committees. All non-Indian-origin firms have at least one woman member on the committee.
KPMG revealed that during 2018-19, around 76% of the top 100 Indian-origin companies by market capitalisation (N100) spent more than the legally-mandated amount on CSR.
The findings are based on CSR disclosures made by N100 firms, under India’s Companies Act. The Act mandates that large companies must spend at least 2% of their three-year average net profit on CSR activities.
Moreover, the CSR committees of over a third of N100 companies were led by women in 2018-19, report said.
“The expenditure of companies where a woman is the chairperson of the CSR committee towards ‘reducing inequality’ has increased from 14% in 2016-17 to 42% in 2018-19. This is an illustration of ‘gender budgeting’ being core to such companies’ philosophy on CSR,” said Santhosh Jayaram, partner and head, sustainability and CSR advisory, KPMG India
CEOs are now members of the CSR committees of almost two-thirds of N100 companies, as per the report.
Share of firms with CEO as member of IndiaCSR committee:
| 2016-17 | 52% |
| 2017-18 | 57% |
| 2018-19 | 65% |
India CSR I indiacsr.in I Data: KPMG
During 2018-19, upto 15% of N100 Indian companies had five or more CSR committee meetings and 52% met more than twice a year. “This clearly indicates that CSR has traction at the board level. This also shows the company board has a clear mandate and expectation from the CSR committee, which demands meeting more frequently,” the survey said.
The cumulative CSR expenditure by N100 companies between 2014-15 and 2018-19 stood at Rs 35,077 crore ($48.95 billion), the KPMG report stated. Education continues to be the top priority in CSR.
Such expenditure on education rose 122% from Rs. 1,249 crore in 2014-15 to Rs. 2,774.8 crore in 2018-19. Spends on art & culture fell significantly from Rs. 279 crore in 2017-18 to Rs. 78.4 crore last year.
CSR expenditure by Indian firms across sectors:
| Area of Works | FY 2018-19 | FY 2017-18 |
| Education | Rs. 2,775 Cr. | Rs. 2,022 Cr. |
| Health and Sanitation | Rs. 2,145 Cr. | Rs. 1,691 Cr. |
| Environment | Rs. 700 Cr. | Rs. 483 Cr. |
| Reducing inequality | Rs. 187 Cr. | Rs. 525 Cr. |
| Sports | Rs. 123 Cr. | Rs. 120 Cr. |
| Art & Culture | Rs. 78 Cr. | Rs. 279 Cr. |
| Welfare Funds | Rs. 38 Cr. | Rs. 71 Cr. |
| War Welfare | Rs. 7 Cr. | Rs. 20 Cr. |
| Technology Incubators | Rs. 4 Cr. | Rs. 1 Cr. |
India CSR I indiacsr.in I Data: KPMG
