CSR monitoring panel to meet second time next week

A six-member panel, looking into ways to strengthen monitoring of CSR activities under the companies law, will hold its second meeting next week.
"The first meeting of Baijal committee has already taken place and the second meeting is slated for March 23," Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) D G Bhaskar Chatterjee said during an interactive session organised by The Bengal Chamber.
IICA had been entrusted to provide secretarial and technical support to the committee headed by former union home secretary Anil Baijal.
The committee is supposed to recommend suitable methodologies for monitoring compliance of the provisions of section 135 (CSR) of Companies Act 2013.

It will also suggest measures to the government for adoption by the companies for systematic monitoring and evaluation of their own CSR activities, Chatterjee said.
The committee's terms of reference also include identifying strategies for evaluation of CSR activities through expert agencies and quality of compliance.

Former Nasscom president Kiran Karnik and Apollo's chairman and managing director Onkar S Kanwar are also part of the committee.
Chatterjee said the government might take a view on the polices on implementation of CSR spend by the corporates after 2-3 years when it will have data to evaluate the impact.
Meanwhile, IICA is carrying out various courses on CSR to create trained manpower in this regard.