India has a strong legislative framework through the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016. In fact, India was the first country in the world to launch a national programme specifically for the control of blindness. The National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB) was launched by the Government of India in 1976 as a centrally sponsored programme. The programme was later expanded and renamed the National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment (NPCBVI), reflecting a broader focus beyond blindness to conditions including refractive errors, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, childhood blindness and corneal blindness.
Due to our already existing strong public architecture, the role of CSR is now not only to create an eye health response but to help strengthen reach, innovation and capacity. Today, this represents a significant pool of development capital with the potential not merely to fund good work, but to influence how some of the country’s most persistent development challenges are solved. The scale is substantial. Companies reported 34,908.75 crore in CSR expenditure in FY2023–24, up from 24,965.82 crore in FY2019–20. Over these five years, reported development-related CSR expenditure crossed 1.44 lakh crore
Therein lies the question. How can it create an impact, and will it last beyond the funding period? The Dus spoke India Inc 2025 report (India CSR: reflections from the last decade, visioning for the next) had some interesting findings, which I am sure many in the sector would agree. Corporates tend to invest mainly in areas/States in which they are operational, and this creates a funding imbalance. The industrialised States would get a larger share of the investment than an aspirational State, despite it being underfunded and also showing weak outcomes on the SDGs. So, we have significant CSR capital and also the institutional architecture, expertise and community networks needed to address many of its development challenges. The opportunity now is to connect the two more strategically. Because the real promise of CSR is not simply in the number of people a project reaches today; it should be about helping build systems that continue reaching people tomorrow.
Looking Beyond Broad CSR Categories
Interestingly, after education, healthcare was the second-largest recipient of CSR expenditure in India in FY2024–25, receiving more than 8,000 crores. But what falls under the ‘health’ category is not very well defined. In practice, ‘healthcare’ portfolios can encompass many things, from hospital construction to maternal, child, TB, blood banks, and medical units; the list goes on. Therefore, a large allocation to ‘health’ can coexist with significant underinvestment in specific health needs like eye health, for instance. The issue is not that corporate India is unwilling to invest in development. It is that investment can become concentrated in a relatively narrow comfort zone of familiar themes, proven interventions and established delivery models. CSR portfolios are usually classified at a very high level, like health, education, environment, and livelihood. But exclusion happens one category below these levels. That’s why I believe that the next CSR evolution shouldn’t be merely about spending on health or education; it should ask a very important question: who remains underserved within these communities. For instance, health can be heavily funded while individual health needs remain neglected; education can attract the largest share of CSR while children with disabilities remain excluded; livelihood programmes can expand while accessible employment remains an afterthought.CSR investments must now identify blind spots within well-funded sectors, test responsible solutions, generate evidence, strengthen public and community capacity, and help proven approaches travel farther.
Making Space for Calculated Innovation Within CSR
The Dus report also highlights the investment risk. Corporates are hesitant to support innovations or pilot projects. These findings should not be read as criticism of corporate governance. CSR teams are accountable to boards, regulation, communities and shareholders, and they reasonably seek programmes with credible partners, measurable results and manageable risk. The opportunity is to make room within that discipline for calculated experimentation: a defined portion of a portfolio that can test a new referral model, digital tool, inclusive-learning approach or workforce intervention, measure it rigorously, and stop, adapt or scale it according to the evidence. Eye health is particularly well suited to this approach because it sits at the intersection of public health, education, livelihoods and disability inclusion. A strategic corporate partnership might help a district strengthen screening and referral pathways rather than fund a parallel service; train ASHA workers, teachers or ophthalmic personnel so capability remains after a grant closes; connect digital referral tools with existing health facilities; improve accessible learning and assistive technology for children with visual impairment; or bring vision screening into occupational settings where good sight has a direct bearing on productivity and safety.
The point is social innovation inherently involves uncertainty, and this creates a paradox. It’s not that they should bet their entire CSR budget on an experiment, but they should have a reasonable appetite for calculated risk.
Way Forward
India’s CSR ecosystem has successfully mobilised substantial private capital for development. Its next challenge is allocation: moving beyond familiar themes,interventions and measures of success to identify actual needs within mainstream sectors, take calculated risks on innovation, and use CSR as catalytic capital where other sources of funding are least likely to go.
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