Corporate social responsibility and sustainable development goals: A study of Indian companies

• Published date: 01 February 2021
• Author: Lokanath Mishra
• Date: 01 February 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2147

ACADEMIC PAPER

Corporate social responsibility and sustainable development

goals: A study of Indian companies

Lokanath Mishra

Institute of Management, JK Lakshmipat

University, Jaipur, India

Correspondence

Lokanath Mishra, Institute of Management, JK

Lakshmipat University, Jaipur, India.

Email: lokanath.phd@gmail.com,

mishra04@gmail.com

India completing five years since mandatory CSR was implemented under Sec 135 of

Companies Act, 2013 compelling Indian companies to contribute 2 % of their last

three-year average net profit in few specified areas of CSR activities as mentioned in

the seventh schedule of the Act. In the same period, United Nations outlined the

17 goals based on sustainable development that contains 169 objectives signed by

various 193 countries around the globe contributing social, environmental causes to

establish a glorious life and opportunities for everyone in the year 2015. The realiza-

tion of sustainable development goals agenda 2030 lies with the Business sector,

corporate as well as Government sector and also the civil society plays a significant

role in this regard. The present study aims to map the CSR activities with sustainable

development goals and review the mandatory CSR practices of 40 Indian companies

and how companies are leveraging CSR thereby attaining sustainable and progressive

target.

1|INTRODUCTION

The global community is more awake than ever before about the sus-

tainability issues and human rights that came a long way from intro-

ducing the Millennium development goals in the year 2000 followed

by Sustainable Development goals in the year 2015. Almost all the

countries in the world have agreed upon the uniformly implementa-

tion of SDGs which focus on environment, economic, and society as

embedded system with agenda 2030. The successful execution based

on sustainable development goal that relies upon the Government,

business as well as civil society, particularly corporate houses that

plays a significant part along with volume resources, technology, and

manpower for successful dealing with the issues. In the same time

period, Indian Parliament introduced new Companies Act, 2013 with

the landmark legislation of mandatory investment in CSR having com-

panies with certain threshold. The Act also prescribed the specific

area of CSR intervention majorly inhabiting the marginal section of

society, health, education, environment protection, rural development

and to uplift the living standard of the people, which are mostly com-

patible with the sustainable development goals. The introduction of

CSR volume contributions since last five years by Indian Companies is

stood at approximately 15,000 cores annually invested in broad spec-

trum of environmental and social causes makes CSR pivotal to in

achieving the sustainable development goals. This article is devel-

oped in understanding the compatibility of CSR contribution to the

identified activities under sustainable development goals also

studies the pattern based on CSR contribution of several preferred

Indian companies (Vinu, 2019; Rhou & Singal, 2020; Sardana,

Gupta, Kumar, & Terziovski, 2020).

1.1 |CSR in India

In the recent years, the practice of corporate social responsibility

(CSR) in India paved a pathway to enter in to a very new trademark of

a mandatory corporate of action and responsiveness from the old field

namely charity and philanthropy. This new trademark provides several

technological advancements by reducing the sustainability and social

issues thereby developing a sustainable business strategy for the

growth of society and to provide good governance. Five years back,

India was one of the first countries in the world, which brought this

land mark legislation that focused on CSR activities for mandatory

CSR investment by the Indian corporate under schedule VII of the

companies Act, 2013. The section 135 of Indian Companies Act 2013

made Indian companies with certain threshold contains the total

money value of about Rs. 1,000 crores, 500 crores, or more than

Received: 29 January 2020 Revised: 8 March 2020 Accepted: 20 March 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2147

J Public Affairs. 2021;21:e2147. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 1of13

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2147