Government's Push For Effective Utilisation Of CSR Funds

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility a.k.a. CSR has been in existence since ages, albeit more so as an informal practice. Only recently, the 'thread' of corporate social responsibility in India has been woven into the 'legal fabric' and the 'apparel' being the Companies Act, 2013 (Act).

The CSR provisions, though formalised under the Act, have not been considered stringent enough. This argument gains weight by the fact that the non-compliance of the provisions can be gotten away with by merely citing 'reasons'. Considering the 'lenient' nature of the provisions, calls had been made from certain sections to make the corporate social responsibility provisions in India stringent and one of the ways, thought of the doing so, was making the non-compliance a criminal offence.