With Gujarat being a home to many industrial projects of several corporate companies, the state seems to have also emerged as one of the most preferred regions for undertaking corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Gujarat received the second highest amount of funds spent by publicly traded companies towards CSR in fiscal 2020-21.
CSR fund worth Rs 676 crore was spent across Gujarat during the financial year 2020-21. The amount was the second highest after Maharashtra, which received CSR expenditure of Rs 1,272 crore, according to the abridged India CSR Outlook Report 2021 prepared by Ahmedabad-based CSR research and advisory firm.
The report covers and analysis 301 large companies — public and private sector—listed on the top stock exchanges in India. The data submitted by companies as on September 30 has been analyzed in the report.
“Gujarathas unique CSR project profile when we look at the intensity and diversity of CSR projects funding. While there are a few large companies with CSR funding going above Rs 10 core, we see a good number of companies from various business sector having CSR projects in the state,” said Bhomik Shah, founder and CEO, CSR BOX.
“Almost 40% of the large 301 companies have funded one or more CSR projects in Gujarat. There are over 500 CSR projects funded by these 120 companies. The large segment of CSR fund comes from companies in pharma, chemical and textile sectors,” Shah added.
When it comes to CSR spending by companies, Gujarat is followed by Delhi (Rs 515 crore worth CSR expenditure by firms in FY21), Odisha (Rs 512) and Karnataka (Rs 494crore).
“Maharashtra alone gets around one tenth of the total annual CSR spent in India, followed by Gujarat and Delhi with 5.6% and 4.3% respectively,” added the report, which highlighted healthcare, education and skills, poverty alleviation and rural development as major beneficiary sectors.
The actual CSR spend by these 301 companies stood at Rs 12,182 crore across India in fiscal 2021 with 65% of companies spending more than their prescribed CSR budget for the year, the report said.
(India CSR)
