NEW DELHI: Industry had widely accepted the 2% CSR rule with a trend of more companies coming out openly to declare over 100% utilization of their CSR money for 2016-17., NASSCOM Foundation said at its flagship event, The CSR Leadership Conference recently organized here in Delhi.
This year the conference went beyond discussing basic intervention areas, to talk about new developments, innovative tools and disruptive ways of making the ecosystem better, more impactful and efficient.
NASSCOM Foundation in partnership with Goodera released the report: ‘Catalyzing Change’. Some key highlights from the report:
- Growing number of companies spending 100% and above of the CSR funds, among both MNCs and Non-MNCs: 61. 6% of the surveyed companies reported spends of 100% or above their prescribed CSR budget. This includes 63.3% of the MNCs and 68% of the Non-MNCs.
- Smaller sized companies (turnover below Rs 100 Crore) proactively pushing CSR initiatives with full utilization of prescribed budget: While 57.57% of large companies, 53.3% of medium companies are spending 100% of CSR funds, an impressive 72.7% of small companies spending 100% of CSR funds.
- Under-spending is a rare condition: Only 5% of companies surveyed reported a spend of less than 50% of their CSR budget.
- Education remains the top focus area of companies’ CSR activities especially in MNCs: 76% of MNCs reported highest CSR spend on Education. Other MNC focus areas:
12% on Hunger & poverty
18% on Gender equality. - MNCs increasing liaison with government to tackle developmental issues: While overall, 43.3% of participating companies confirmed working with the Central/State government in their socio-economic projects for 2016-17
Shrikant Sinha, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation, said, “The IT BPM Industry has been at the forefront of social development initiatives and it is heartening to see the industry emerging as one of the most efficient and innovative adopters of corporate social responsibility.
Technology continues to prove a force multiplier in social impact with more than half of the companies that spent 100% or more of their CSR funds, claiming efficient use of technology to deliver innovative CSR programs aligned to the Government agenda.”
