LITERATURE REVIEW:

Barin and Ansari (2017) drew out the predominant CSR activities of select Indian organizations. Unique accentuation was given to fusion of environmental perspectives into CSR activities of the selected corporates. Likewise, proposals were attracted to build up a CSR structure that can be acknowledged around the world. Reena Shyam (2016) dissected CSR advancement and arrangements working in India.

It likewise explains upon CSR idea, difficulties and measures to build CSR activities. Ghosh Sumona (2015) undertook an empirical and analytical approach to explore patterns of corporate social responsibility disclosers that have been made by the private sector companies in the companies documents available publicly. BalaMadhu and Singh Narender (2014) studied and analyzed the similarities between the CSR practices or components across private companies using factor analysis. Khan and Hassan (2013) studied on the major domains and areas about the amount spent on CSR donations and activities. Enock and Basavaraji (2013) looked at the CSR practices of ITC Company and Tata Company on different CSR regions and and therefore the several news designs in their study. Bhupender and Joshiya (2012) introduced the predominant CSR idea, status and difficulties and challenges furthermore as policies for CSR with relation to Indian society. Sharma and Kiran (2012) endeavored to draw out the present status, advancement and activities taken with respect to development and execution of CSR approaches by huge Indian Corporate houses. Arvind Jain (2012) checked on the current writing and concentrated on featuring the theoretical information of idea of corporate social obligation. Soheli Ghose (2012) featured the idea of corporate social obligation with exceptional accentuation on CSR globalization, legitimate necessities, and reporting activity in Indian setting. For this reason, specific instances of CSR practices and infringement were analyzed. Hurratul Maleka Taj (2011) endeavored to draw out the advantages and difficulties for CSR furthermore as measures of sustainable development taken by Indian corporate houses. It additionally recognizes their social and financial execution. Lokaranjan Guha (2011) inspected the particular Indian organizations having crossed the ISO principles (9000, 14000, 18000). Further, the investigation inspected the job and structure of CSR evaluations. Nidhi Khurana (2011) assesses the usage of CSR and viability of CSR. The examination holds explicit significance over CSR procedures and required manageable moves to be made by corporate firms, which then would expand their benefits. Sweta Singh (2010) inspected various methodologies and current CSR approaches adopted in various Indian organizations. The investigation additionally draws out the CSR effects and difficulties faced in the Indian culture. Gautam and Singh (2010) hypothetically considered the idea of CSR and assessed improvement and ongoing patterns of Corporate Social Responsibility with Indian setting. The investigation assessed CSR practices of 500 organizations and recognized their credibility against Global Reporting Initiative Standards. Dhond Arvind (2008) investigated the degree to which corporate houses go past lawful commitment with their CSR rehearses. Accordingly, the paper explained upon CSR exercises of different Indian organizations.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

Research Objective:

The present study is an endeavor to investigate the present CSR practices as per the guidelines of GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) guidelines of some of the top companies of India while also giving due consideration to the aspects of academic perspectives and educational initiatives taken up by these companies besides reflecting over the aspect of encompassing environmental needs into these csr practices adopted over time.

Data Sources:

The method adopted for the purpose of data collection in the study is the extensive study and examination of secondary sources. The study relies heavily on the extensive examination of the sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports such as Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Annual Reports Business Responsibility Reports (BRR), as well as freely revealed data on the web in the form of publicly disclosed information.

Sample Size:

For the aim of the study, eighteen prime corporations of India in line with the varied rankings being allotted to them by massive 4’s like KPMG and Deloitte are taken and analyzed. The information about these corporations has been collated from the printed annual reports and sustainability reports of those corporations. The data has been collected from the reports of following companies: -

S. No.	Sector	Name of the Companies
1	Crude Oil and Gas Refining	Iocl, Ongc, Bharat Petroleum
2	Information Technology Services	Wipro, Tcs, Infosys
3	Energy, Power and Electricity	Ntpc, Power Grid Corporation Of India
4	Banking and Financial Services	Hdfc Bank, Icici Bank
5	Heavy Electricals and Engineering	Bhel, landt ltd.
6	Mining and Metals	Sail, coal india ltd.
7	Consumer Durables	ITC LTD

Period of Study:

The study period ranges from 2016-17 to 2017-18.

Technique of the study:

The data collected has further been analyzed using content analysis and descriptive statistics.

Justification of selection of the sample:

These designated corporations are widely acknowledged to be the most effective within the numerous areas of their operations and having vast market share within the country. The explanation for absorbing these corporations within the study is that these corporations belong to completely different sectors like petroleum and gas refinement, info technology services, energy and power, automobile and allied services, banking and money services, metal and mining, infrastructure, significant electricals and engineering and durables and per se act as a representative of various spectrum of economic activities undertaken in any economy. These corporations would facilitate a broad view of CSR practices adopted through a spectrum of property activities undertaken by these corporations. Also, these corporations are listed on BSE and NSE; have a large turnover in their various areas and are awarded by the FICCI and Assocham for their csr credentials.

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION: -

Table1: Showing the CSR budget and actual expenditure for the year 2016-17 (in crores) and showing the percentage expenditure of CSR on environment:

	Name of the Companies	CSR Budget (Actual Prescribed Allocation)	Actual Expenditure	Unspent Amount	% of Amount Spent (of actual allocated)	Amount spent on educational activities	% Expenditure of CSR on educational activities	Amount spent on environment	% Expenditure of CSR on environment
11 1	Steel Authority of India Limited	0	29.05	0	100	13.28	45.71	2	6.88
2 2 2	Coal India Ltd.	127.34	128.05	0	100	0.56	0.437	10.28	8.02
31 3	Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.	37.50	26.78	10.7	71.41	10.91	40.73	0.57	2.12
41 4	Larsen and Toubro (L&T) Ltd.	98.97	100.77	0	100	51.77	51.37	7.04	6.98
51 5	Infosys	287.42	289.44	0	100	67.67	23.37	83.91	28.99
61 6	Tata Consultancy Services	446	379.71	66.29	85.13	88.00	23.175	0.6	0.15
7 7	Wipro	176.40	186.30	0	100	129.09	69.29	56.70	30.43
81 8	HDFC Bank	304	305.42	0	100	25.87	8.47	1.01	0.33
9 9	ICICI BANK LTD.	182	200	0	100	3.00	1.5	0	0
10 10	NTPC	277.85	277.81	0.04	99.98	60.45	0.217	35.33	12.71
1 11	Power Grid Corporation of India	135.58	147.27	0	100	8.48	5.75	5.8	3.93
12 12	ITC Limited	275.25	275.96	0	100	44.93	16.28	73.99	26.66
13 13	IOCL	212.67	213.99	0	100	0.06	0.02	68.26	31.89
14 14	Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.	159.14	90.98	68.16	57.16	5.65	6.27	2.18	2.39
1 15	ONGC	535.66	525.90	9.76	98.17	63.30	12.03	22.46	4.46

(Source: Authors compilation from the annual reports of 2016-2017)

Table 2: Showing the CSR budget and actual expenditure for the year 2017-18 (in crores) and showing the percentage expenditure of CSR on environment

	Name of the Companies	CSR Budget (Actual Prescribed Allocation)	Actual Expenditure	Unspent Amount	% of Amount Spent (of actual allocated)	Amount spent on educational activities	% Expenditure of CSR on educational activities	Amount spent on environment	% Expenditure of CSR on environment
1	Steel Authority of India Limited	0	25.70	0	100	11.19	43.54	2.20	8.56
2	Coal India Ltd.	7.88	24.31	0	100	0.63	2.59	0.19	0.78
3	Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.	10.40	7.36	0	70.76	3.13	42.52	0.02	0.27
4	Larsen and Toubro (L&T) Ltd.	97.29	100.92	0	100	17.9	17.73	2.65	2.625
5	Infosys	310.25	312.60	0	100	13.99	4.47	207.58	66.30
6	Tata Consultancy Services	497	400	97	80.48	86.00	21.5	400	0.25
7	Wipro	183.30	186	0	100	134.99	72.57	50	26.88
8	HDFC Bank	365	374.54	0	100	40.96	10.93	0.73	0.19
9	ICICI BANK LTD.	170.20	170.30	0	100	3.00	1.76	0	0
10	NTPC	220.75	241.54	0	100	65.26	27.01	15.08	6.24
11	Power Grid Corporation of India	157.94	157.98	0	100	10.77	6.81	1.77	1.12
12	ITC Limited	290.47	290.98	0	100	20.44	7.02	68.52	23.54
13	IOCL	327.94	331.05	0	100	8.3	2.50	68.26	31.89
14	Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.	183.33	166.02	17.31	90.55	27.54	16.58	0.78	0.46
15	ONGC	487.04	503.42	0	100	88.8	17.63	22.46	4.46

(Source: Authors compilation from the annual reports of 2017-2018)

We have taken 2016-17 and 2017-18 as the period of study because the various regulations relating to csr were introduced in the Companies Act 2013 and only became effective wef 1 April 2014, so it was imperative that the data should relate to the years following 2013 and we wanted to study CSR developments in the current years. As per section 135 of the Companies’ Act 2013, companies with net worth of 500 crore or more, or a turnover of Rs.1000 Cr. or more, or profit of Rs.5 crore or more in a given fiscal year are required to spend at least 2% of its average net profit after tax for the immediately preceding three financial years on corporate social responsibility activities (as has been mentioned in the Schedule VII). The actual expenditure on CSR and sustainability-related activities and the actual CSR budget of the company is determined from the annual reports and sustainability reports of the selected companies and the expenditure spent on the environmental activities has been mentioned in the annexure to account wherein details of the sustainability activities have been described in detail as per section 135 of the Companies Act 2013.

ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS OF THE STUDY:

The above-mentioned tables highlight the amount that the companies have been prescribed to spend in the CSR and sustainability activities and the amount actually spent by the companies during the financial year 2016-17 and 2017-2018. From that, the percentage of amount spent on CSR is also calculated. The table also highlights the total amount that has been spent on educational and environmental and sustainable activities out of the total amount of CSR and the percentage of the stated expenditure on environmental activities.

· By studying the corporate sustainability reports of the various corporations and analyzing the figures in the tables above we get to know that although the top most companies are spending a considerable amount on csr activities which is more than the amount to be adhered to according to the legal requirements, still only a minuscule amount is being spent on environmental activities though a significant chunk of csr spending is being spent upon educational activities.

· Further, the companies are spending only 11.06% on environmental activities and 20.30% on educational activities out of the total expenditure on CSR activities in year 2016-17 and 11.571% on environmental activities and 23.738% on educational activities in the year 2017-18.

· Though ICICI Bank has been a major player undertaking CSR activities, it has not spent a single penny devoted to environmental sector and spent only approx. 1.5% on educational activities during both the years.

· Wipro, IOCL and TCS have emerged out to be major players devoting a substantial share of their funds allocated for csr on environmental friendly sustainable activities while SAIL, BHEL, L&T and Wipro have emerged out to be major players devoting a substantial share of their funds allocated for csr on activities devoted to educational awareness and school and higher education development.

· These companies have spent approximately 30% of their funding devoted to csr on environmental activities in the year 2016-2017 and while Infosys has spent 66.3%, Wipro 26.88% on environmental activities and 72% on educational activities ; IOCL close to 32% respectively on environmental activities and SAIL 43% in the year 2017-18.

· This implies that the percentage of funds being spent on educational activities and environmental activities has gained prominence.

· It has been observed from the study of sustainability reports that there is a consensus among the industry experts that the companies are moving beyond just adhering to the compliance to focus on creating a long-term impact for the beneficiaries and different stakeholders.

· Those companies which have not been able to spend their entire amount stipulated for the csr in a given fiscal year have stated the reasons for the same, a common reason that emerged out was that some of their projects specifically concerned with the environmental sustainable activities are long term projects spanning over several years and there were often administrative delays that the companies faced in the adoption of such projects.

· Those organizations which have not had the option to spend their whole sum stipulated for the csr in a given financial year have expressed the reason behind the same, a typical reason that was discovered out was that a portion of their ventures explicitly concerned with the ecological sustainable activities and academic and higher-educational support and development activities are long haul undertakings spanning a considerable period of few years and there were regularly authoritative delays that the organizations looked in the reception of such tasks.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

· Time period taken is two years. Annual reports of 2016-17 and 2017-18 only have been used for the purpose of the study. The reason for taking the financial year 2014-15 was that companies act became effective on 1 April 2014.The study could have been more elaborate if the data would have been available for several past years.

· Only top companies from different sectors have been taken in the sample. The study can be made broad if the sample size can be increased and companies from other sectors except the ones taken in the study are also included.

· Since the present study takes into consideration only the environmental-sustainability aspect, other sectors have not taken into consideration in the present study.

CONCLUSION:

Throughout the years, a few business houses in India have demonstrated their expanding consideration for social obligation through their commitment to wellbeing, health, education, environment and rural development programmes.In the present day and age, CSR has gone much past the customary idea of generosity (for example philanthropy and gifts) to the areas of rural and community development, institution building wherein that the companies are moving beyond just adhering to the compliance to focus on creating a long-term impact for the beneficiaries and different stakeholders. It has been noticed by an extensive study of the sustainability reports that a large chunk of money devoted for the sustainability activities is being spent primarily either on education or rural development.

Environmental activities and educational and academic activities and higher educational societal developmental programmes as a prominent sustainable sector though have been prioritized by many companies in the current years but it has been observed that the spending on the environmental sector have been rather insignificant, though spending on educational sector is significant. A reason for less expenditure on environmental activities is delayed administrative The legal stipulation of 2013 Companies’ Act of spending at least 2% of the average net profits after tax in the preceding three years on CSR activities has encouraged the companies to undertake sustainable activities and to disclose the same in the annual and sustainability reports of the companies. This helps in increasing the transparency as well as accuracy of the reports. Because of countless misfortunes by the organizations in the past which have adversely affected the ecological biodiversity and due to pressure by the society and government, companies have begun to take environment as an important area into csr.

The developing nations like India, are facing the problem of promoting economic development without adversely affecting the enjoyment of the natural resources by future generations (sustainable development).

The present paper studies the current CSR practices of top companies belonging to different sectors in India for the financial years 2016-17 and 2017-2018. The CSR budget and the actual expenditure on CSR on educational and environmental activities has been determined from the annual and sustainability reports of the companies. The findings revealed that out of the total prescribed expenditure on CSR, companies have been spending approximately close to 11% of the total funds on environment related sustainable activities and 20% on educational activities. Companies have been spending more on education, health care, promotion of sports and vocational training and skills while the spendings environmental sustainability have been rather insignificant in relation to the damage done by the companies to the environment in the form of spillovers, pollution waste and sewage discharge. Indian companies had allocated a budget of over Rs. 9,000 crores towards their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities in 2017-18, revealed a news report based on data from Prime Database. It is to be noted that education and vocational skill training are the prominent focus areas for Indian companies. It has been observed that approximately 37% of the csr funds being spent by companies are contributing towards education and vocational skill building activities. This development area has also witnessed the largest absolute increase in allocation of resources and funds.

It has also been observed by the researcher that although the companies disclose about CSR budget and their spending, as well as places where the amount is spent by the csr committee and the members engaged in the csr committee but there is no uniformity in their reports. So, the researchers strongly recommend that a common format should adopted by all the companies so that it ensures an ease of understanding while doing the comparison of CSR reports between different companies over a period of time. Also, a separate CSR department should be incorporated in the companies devoted to creating awareness about environmental and societal problems. Government should also motivate and encourage sustainable spending on environmental activities of csr. Certain exemptions and tax benefits should be given to those companies which spends a significant amount on sustainable activities and its protection. The reserves of natural resources that are present in the ecology are rather limited in nature, so we must ensure their judicious and appropriate use so that our future generation can also take advantage of the same. For that, environmental aspects should be taken care of by the business, people as well as by the society.

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Received on 02.07.2019 Modified on 29.07.2019

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2019; 10(4): 1095-1100.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2019.00180.3