Impact of government policy initiatives on CSR activities of companies: A review of the Indian context CSR communication of the 50 largest Indian firms - An analysis

Abstract

The inequality in society within and across countries is a key area around which world development discussion is centered on. Despite several measures by the government, it has still not been able to ensure equal access to resources. There are many necessities such as food, clothing, shelter, water which is accessible only by a limited section of the society. The poverty line gives an estimate of the number of people deprived of the access to such resources. This number has been steadily increasing since the 1970’s. The United Nations, with questionable satisfaction at the rate of human development has taken up steps to focus the attention of the countries worldwide on poverty and the resulting consequences by convening global conferences. The summits which were held by the UN led to an agreement among the member countries to adopt a shared vision of development. This series of development paved the way for a millennium summit in September 2000, where leaders from across the countries joined hands to adopt the United Nations Millennium declaration. The idea of the Millennium declaration was to address critical developmental issues like gender equality, poverty eradication, right to development etc. To achieve this, the declaration sought a commitment from the 189-member nations for a global partnership and laid out a series of eight goals with 18-time bound targets, to be adhered to by 2015 which were termed as the Millennium development goals (MDG’s). In India, MDG’s did not attract favorable reactions initially. The promotion of MDG’s was carried out by the UN Secretariat, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund(IMF) and such promotions was perceived to be an act of pressure of the first world countries upon Least Developed Countries (LDCs) (Basu, 2007). There were also a lot of questions raised on the usefulness of the goals. It was a common belief that MDG’s were more important for some of the less developed African countries than for developing countries like India. However, gradually the MDG’s gained acceptance from the government and non-governmental organizations as well. There are extensive studies in literature about CSR which has focused on the purpose of CSR activities, how they influence the image of a corporation, the benefits to the corporations and its stakeholders. However, there still exists a gap in understanding whether CSR activities taken up by corporations is directed towards the appropriate target audience. This study aims to address this gap by studying the CSR activities of the top 50 Indian companies(by revenue) and whether the CSR activities are aligned towards the Millennium development goals set by the UN. According to the UNDP 2018, India’s Human development index ranking is 131 amongst 188 countries and around 24 percent of the population in India earns less than $1.25 per day. Millennium development goals seeks to improve this scenario and guide the development of the country. The rest of the article is structured along the following lines: a) An overview of the Millennium development goals b) Review of CSR c) Analysis of the top 50 Indian companies with respect to Millennium development goals and d) Discussion and e) Conclusion.