NASSCOM Foundation Reports Rise In Industry CSR Spending

The Nasscom Foundation, at its flagship event, the CSR Leadership Conference (CLC), announced that the industry had widely accepted the 2% CSR rule with a trend of more companies coming out openly to declare 100%+ utilisation of their CSR money for 2016-17.

This year the CLC 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. In this process, the CLC will deep dive into Re-Calibrating Employability through CSR, Social Impact Investing, Leveraging Big Data for Impact, Unlocking the Value of Corporate Sustainability in the form of panel discussions, fireside chats and impact talks.

NASSCOM Foundation in partnership with Goodera released the report: ‘Catalyzing Change’.  It has been found that there is a growing number of companies spending 100% and above of the CSR funds, among both MNCs and Non-MNCs. As much as 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.

Besides, smaller sized companies, with turnover below Rs 100 crore, have been proactively pushing CSR initiatives with full utilisation of prescribed budget:  While 57.57% of large companies and 53.3% of medium companies are spending 100% of CSR funds, an impressive 72.7% of small companies spending 100% of CSR funds, the report said.

It was also found that only 5% of companies surveyed reported spend of less than 50% of their CSR budget. Further, education remained the top focus area of companies’ CSR activities, especially in the MNCs. As much as 76% of MNCs reported highest CSR spend on Education. Other MNC focus areas included 12% on hunger & poverty; and 18% on gender equality.

It said that the MNCs have been increasing liaison with government to tackle developmental issues. 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 the efficient use of technology to deliver innovative CSR programs aligned to the Government agenda.”

CEOs, CXOs, CSR Heads, HR Heads of the top most companies from across various industries with the NGO Leads, Government officials, thought leaders, Tech4Good champions, social innovators come under one roof to discuss and create collaborative and innovative ways of fulfilling the most important Social Development Goals for India.

Through networking spaces, the CSR Leadership Conference also provides an opportunity to showcase work and connect at a programmatic level.

Thank you for reading the story until the very end. We appreciate the time you have given us. In addition, your thoughts and inputs will genuinely make a difference to us. Please do drop in a line and help us do better.

Regards,
The CSR Journal Team

Subscribe