India CSR News Network

For the first time ever, Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, also known as the Father of Modern CSR in India speaks about ‘The Genesis of the CSR Mandate in India: Demystifying the ‘Chatterjee Model’ in a second Chapter jointly authored by him and Ms. Nayan Mitra in the book Corporate Social Responsibility in India: Cases and Developments after the Legal Mandate edited by Ms. Nayan Mitra and Dr. Rene Schmidpeter and published by Springer International Publishing, Switzerland under its CSR, Sustainability, Ethics and Governance series. The Book is available both in e-version and hard copy from Springer as well as Amazon and many other online book stores all over the world. The abstract of the chapter is as follows:

Abstract 1: India, in recent times (2013) has come out with the Companies Act, 2013, replacing the previous 57 year old Act of 1956. In this new Act, it has a Section dedicated to the CSR mandate for certain companies. This has created a storm in India’s socio-economic environment. But, who formulated this mandate? What was the genesis of this mandate? How is this CSR model different from other CSR models? What are its unique/ novel points? The questions are many.

This is an exclusive interview conducted by Ms. Nayan Mitra (N.M) of Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee (B.C), the man who formulated this mandate, to outline his logic behind each of the aspects of the mandate and to probe deeper to know more about this ‘Chatterjee model,’ its uniqueness, its ‘fit’ to the socio-economic, environmental needs of India, how he overcame various challenges at various times and how, he turned the ‘accident of history’ into the ‘turn of history’!

Keywords: CSR Mandate, Legislated CSR, India, Inclusive Development, ‘Chatterjee’ Model, Section 135, Schedule VII

Not stopping there, the authors (Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee and Ms. Nayan Mitra) have penned yet another Chapter ‘CSR Implementation: How It Is Done In India’ in the same book (Corporate Social Responsibility in India: Cases and developments after the legal mandate), which discusses the various elements of CSR Implementation as outlined in the Law. The abstract of the Chapter as follows:

Abstract 2: The CSR mandate was passed under the Companies Act, 2013; however, India Inc. faced great challenges in the transition and the initial period of its implementation: How does a Corporation organize itself to shoulder this responsibility? Who are its partners? How to choose credible partners? What were the qualifications expected from the people who did CSR?

All these concepts needed to be worked out, sorted. CSR, with the passing of the mandate, came to the ‘Boardroom from the backroom’, that required professional intervention. This paper, seeks to understand the various dynamics of CSR implementation, as put forward by the mandate, from an exclusive interview of Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee (B.C), the man who was instrumental in incorporating it.

Keywords: Foundations, Non-governmental Organization (NGO), CSR Vertical, Implementation Agency Hub, CSR Professional, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), National Foundation of CSR (NFCSR)

Author profile:

Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee is widely acclaimed as the Father of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India. He was instrumental in framing and issuing the CSR guidelines for Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) in April, 2010. Thereafter, he played a major role in the inclusion of Section 135 in the Companies Act of 2013 and in the framing of the rules. As the DG & CEO of the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), he spearheaded the National Foundation for Corporate Social Responsibility (NFCSR). He has spoken and lectured on the subject of CSR at a very large number of National and International for over the last five years and is acknowledged as the primary force for bringing a new paradigm to the realm of CSR and providing it with an innovative and strategic vision. Dr. Chatterjee is also a widely acclaimed management practitioner, theorist and teacher. He has written and lectured over many years on issues of social and sustainable development, corporate responsibility and human resources. He has most recently authored his latest Book entitled “Sustainable Futures – Imperatives For Managing The Social Agenda,” in which he shows how governments, corporates and civil society organizations can synergize their efforts to build a whole new paradigm of development that is sustainable, humanistic and inclusive.

Ms. Nayan Mitra comes with a rich mix of diverse professional experience of over sixteen years. She straddles seamlessly between academics, social and corporate sectors. As a Developmental Consultant, she has worked closely with some of the eminent Corporations and not-for profits of India as well as being in their Advisory and Board level. She has conducted several social researches for multi-lateral agencies; the findings of which have become important bases for sustainable action. She has been a resource person in eminent Institutions of higher learning in the areas of CSR and Corporate Governance and has important peer reviewed research publications to her credit in national and international Academic journals and books as well as delivered at key Conferences. She was a finalist of the prestigious Chevening Gurukul Scholarship for Leadership and Excellence – 2013, as conferred by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) of the British Deputy High Commission.

Related Links:

http://www.springer.com/in/book/9783319417806

Nayan Mitra, René Schmidpeter and Editor Christian with the latest book on #CSR in #India https://t.co/qeKGWgsuQ5 pic.twitter.com/0ZVscg5dIv
— Springernomics (@Springernomics) August 8, 2016