India's new CSR regulations make philanthropy compulsory for companies

New CSR rules replacing comply-or-explain regulations with a mandatory regimen have raised the stakes for large corporations

Indian corporations have never been more answerable for their social responsibility as they are now, ever since the government notif­i­ed the new rules in January 2021 un­d­er­lining the big theme that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is manda­t­ory and a statutory obligation, making India the first country to have done so.

In 2014, Section 135 of the Companies Act made it mandatory for every company with a net worth of at least Rs 500 crore, turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or more, or a minimum net profit of Rs 5 crore during the immediately preceding financial year to spend at least