CSR spending on the rise but not equitable, skewed towards three sectors

Six states account for a third of total CSR spending; three sectors account for 59.9 per cent of funding.

The government has mandated a new disclosure framework for corporate social responsibility from this year onwards. Companies shall have to file a detailed report for 2020-21 highlighting expenditure on ongoing projects and new projects, creation of capital assets, details of the impact assessment reports, among other things.

While the new norms aim to increase contributions from companies and make them more compliant, a Business Standard analysis shows that CSR contributions were on a steady rise before the pandemic.

Analysis of data from the government’s CSR dashboard shows that in 2020-21, companies spent a total of Rs 20,360 crore on CSR