Corporate social responsibility in India: A journey from corporate philanthropy to governance mandate

Business is obligatory to society as it flourishes in the very social eco-system. Socially responsible, ethically upright and environmentally sustainable business solutions will endure spatially and temporally. The governmental initiatives to put corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the core business agenda acknowledge the policy engagement in promoting socially responsible business in a country. The present article is the outcome of a country-specific study examining the CSR mandates in a historical perspective in India in general and the domain of Companies Act 2013 in particular. The approach of the study is desk research. The study has observed that the recent mandate of India in this regard is to align the CSR engagements with corporate performance through a process of internalisa-tion and institutionalisation.