Role Of Corporate Social Responsibility In India

Corporate Social Responsibility in India:

In the rich cultural heritage of India since ages country has been known for charity and social duty which has changed its nature over the period of time, now charity has broadened its horizons and now it is popularly known as Corporate Social Responsibility. From the time of introduction of business in India social and environmental issues have penetrated deep roots in the culture of the country, since late 1800s India posses deeper roots practicing industrial welfare and corporate philanthropy clubbed with religious belief. When initially CSR was introduced in the Indian society very few philanthropic activities were documented, but with the realization of importance of philanthropic activities

He advised corporate may use own financial, managerial and human resource in reconstruction measures adopted for the goodness of society. Gradually his advice was taken seriously and it got accepted in theory that corporate had to share overhead costs with the society. Traditionally, CSR was done to society in form of donations to educational institutes, medical and science based researches. But the most important change noticed in 90s was corporates accepting social responsibility as an integral part of management activity. Tata Iron and Steel Company introduced the concepts of “Social Responsibility” (Gupta, 2007). Sethi (1975) was the first person to introduce the term corporate social performance, which was later expanded by Carroll (1979), and then Wartick and Cochran (1985) refined it. Sethi (1975) gave three-level model in which the concept of corporate social performance was discussed in details with the differences explained in various types of corporate behaviors. According to Cochran (2007) Sethi’s three level model discussed ‘social obligation’ meaning response to legal and market constraints; ‘social responsibility’ meaning congruency with societal norms; and social responsiveness meaning adaptive, anticipatory and preventive behavior. Later years of 20th century witnessed corporates making active participation in the mainstream development of the society and showed greater concern for the disadvantaged groups of the society. According to Mohan (2001) this drive was internally (corporate own will) and externally (increased government and public expectations) inspired. As per the reports of a sample survey conducted in 1984 an amount of 47% was