Speaking at a panel discussion organised by Business Standard, Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy has urged the top 100 Indian companies could allocate an additional 8% “as against the current 2% of the profits earmarked for corporate social responsibility” under Section 135 of the Companies Act, to achieve these goals, he added.
Murthy, who is also a trustee of the Infosys Foundation, said that he wouldn’t mind sitting down with the chief executive officers of all the top 100 companies to achieve this goal.
“Let us be very clear, being rich in a poor country is not much fun. This may seem a little bit outlandish, but I think these are the kind of discussions we must have.”
“If we can contribute towards making this a better society, I feel all of us will be much happier,” he added.
Murthy stressed that the private sector needs to play a bigger role in Indian science and technology research.
Murthy also said that India must improve the contribution of taxation towards GDP from the current 11.5 percent to 16-18 percent in order to reduce inequality in the country, and to achieve, he recommended that increasing the tax rates at the highest marginal levels and adding more people into the tax net.
“Unless you have money, there’s no way you can solve these problems,” he added.
Earlier Dr. Huzaifa Khorakiwala (Sir Dr. Huz), Director of Wockhardt Ltd and CEO of Wockhardt Foundation on October 6, 2017 while addressing CSR Summit organized by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry has said that CSR spent of 2% as provided under current statute for undertaking corporate social responsibilities is too little and therefore, its ceiling should be raised to 10% of total turnover of the corporate.
Read more 2% of CSR spend is too little, should be raised to 10%, says Sir Dr. Huz
