Kasmin Fernandes

2018 was quite eventful with regard to corporate social responsibility. Here is a lookback at major events in this domain. January 2018 The corporate affairs ministry gives permission for penal action against 196 companies for violating corporate social responsibility norms in 2014-15 fiscal, according to union minister P P Chaudhary. Tata Sons’ flagship firms had started collaborating...

Companies in India spent INR 7536 crores on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in 2017-18, a 47% rise compared to 2014-15, says a survey. "This is a significant rise, clearly demonstrating higher expenditure towards CSR activities from the mandated year, 2014," said the KPMG India CSR Reporting Survey 2018. The cumulative expenditure by top 100...

It has been quite an eventful year in the corporate social responsibility domain. So active was this field that a High Level Committee on CSR 2018 has been re-constituted under the chairmanship of Injeti Srinivas, Secretary, MCA to review the existing framework and guide and formulate the roadmap for a coherent policy on CSR. The...

You may feel that Christmas is a license to eat and drink too much, and yet the idea of transcending ordinary limits has been part of solstice celebrations for hundreds of years. You don’t have to go to literal extremes, but you can stretch your personal rules, based on the idea of days or...

Party responsibly this holiday season to do your citizen social responsibility (CSR). New Year’s Eve has the highest incidents of road accidents, drunk driving, and underage drinking. There are also numerous incidents of vandalism and molestation. Christmas parties have been stripped of their religious significance and have been converted into an excuse for gluttony...

There are about 3.1 million NGOs in India – of which around 1.2 million are operational – there is little verifiable data available to make an accurate assessment of the sector. Companies like Impactify and Samhita are bringing a shift in the mindset among corporates by making them understand that they need to be involved in...

The production of food that will not be consumed needlessly uses up natural resources, generates greenhouse gas emissions, and creates waste. We have some recos to reduce food wastage. Here's what can be done for large-scale impact on food loss. 1. Common definitions and metrics The absence of a shared definition of food loss and waste...

CSR by large private hospitals is probably not as documented compared to their manufacturing and tech counterparts. CSR initiatives by these hospitals can be broadly classified into four buckets: rural healthcare, awareness campaigns, disaster-relief campaigns, and education. Even then, many don’t have clearly articulated CSR policies. The rise of chronic diseases, which is the biggest...

Companies undertake many types of responsible business activities. It is difficult to comprehend easily the breadth and scope of their work. A new study uses a measure called the Spread, which is indicative of how broad-based the responsible business activities of a company are and is a combined score of the four criteria: Disclosure,...

The National Water Mission targets to reduce water consumption by 20% in all sectors by 2030. To achieve this, many policy level initiatives have been taken and higher allocations were made to water based projects in 2017-18 budget. 4 key policy changes in budget 1. Mandate of zero liquid discharge system for some industries, 2. Issuance of...

Waste is a big environmental challenge, for companies across the board. Leading Indian companies recognise waste management as a key issue. Plastic is used in various sectors such as building & construction, consumer products (such as furniture, housewares, automobiles, electronics, etc.), industrial goods (such as machines) and packaging. Packaging forms the lion share in plastic...

Being proficient in the English language is an advantage, often unfair, in India. Not being fluent in it could mean losing out on the job you’re qualified for. One social enterprise is trying to reduce the gap. Focusing mainly on students and blue-collared workers who are at the bottom of the pyramid, Kings Learning...