Tag: Corporate Social Responsibility
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Voluntary Guidelines on Environmental Social Governance
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) this week issued the National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental & Economic Responsibilities of Business (ESG Guidelines), which represents a significant and substantial effort in enhancing the protection of stakeholder interests in the corporate sector. The concepts of stakeholder interests and corporate social responsibility (CSR)…
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Academic Analysis of CSR in India
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Although there has been a signficiant amount of discussion about corporate social responsibility (CSR) in India, there…
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More on CSR in the Companies Bill
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] (The following post has been contributed by Satvik Varma) It has been reported in yesterday’s Economic Times that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs is perhaps doing away with the mandatory spend of 2% on Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”). While details of any such changes are not available on the Ministry’s website,…
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Legislating CSR
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] (The following post has been contributed by Satvik Varma, who is an Advocate and Corporate Counsel based in New Delhi. He holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School and is licensed to practice in India and in New York. He can be contacted at svarma@post.harvard.edu) Enclosed below is the link to…
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RBI Sub-Committee on Microfinance
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] With several legal and regulatory issues affecting the microfinance sector lately, more so in the state of Andhra Pradesh, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had appointed a sub-committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Y.H. Malegam to “study issues and concerns in the microfinance sector in so far as they related…
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CSR: Not Mandatory After All
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] A couple of months ago, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) announced its intention to include a mandatory provision for corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the Companies Bill. The issue of regulating CSR using the stick of a mandatory provision was the subject-matter of critique, including on this Blog. The Government…
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Movement Towards Mandatory CSR
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] A few weeks ago, we discussed the Government’s proposal to introduce mandatory provisions regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR). A press release issued yesterday by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs suggests mandatory provisions for CSR will be included in the new company legislation. The release states: In response to the overwhelming concerns…
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Bits of Interest
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] 1. SEBI and Auditors: It was reported a few days ago that the Bombay High Court has allowed SEBI to proceed with its enquiry against the auditors in connection with the Satyam scam. The judgment is now available on the Bombay High Court website. 2. Satyam Saga: With all the accused…
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Viability of Mandatory CSR
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] CNBC reports on a proposal by the Government to require companies to introduce mandatory CSR spending: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) spends will now be made mandatory for corporate India, sources in the Ministry of Company Affairs told CNBC-TV18. If approved, companies will have to spend 2% of the average net profit…
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Risk Management Systems
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] 1. In this column in the Mint, I attempt to stress the importance of systems for managing risk in the modern corporation. 2. In this post, Professor Jayanth Varma discusses whether systems and controls may have prevented the peculiar case of “a drunken broker (Steven Perkins) who bought $520 million of…