As corporate governance becomes increasingly driven by ethical norms and the need for accountability, and CSR adapts to prevailing business practices and legal framework, a potential convergence between them surfaces. Corporate Social Responsibility is an indispensable part of corporate planning, strategy and operational performance.  Time line of evolution of legal framework for CSR in India In India, the provisions relating to Corporate Governance and CSR are covered under following heads:   · The Companies Act, 1956 (applicable to both listed and unlisted companies) · Securities and Exchange Board of India and regulations (applicable to listed companies) A. The Companies Act  Provisions The companies Act 1956 was replaced with Companies Act 2013 and  brought an end to the long wait by inserting Sec. 135 on Corporate Social Responsibility  as follows.  Every company having net worth of rupees five hundred crore or more, or turnov...

 Classified as part of Political theories of CSR, Corporate Citizenship is an important approach to manage firm's CSR activities.  To be globally competitive and acceptable companies have to ensure that they establish a reputation base that would support their efforts. Corporate reputation is the external manifestation of corporate excellence and is built upon a company’s product or service reputation, its business reputation and credibility in financial markets and its social reputation. Companies need to reconfirm and reiterate to themselves that they operate with in a society with its sanction and authority and ultimately for the common good of its largest part, not just for itself or its shareholders, employees and managers alone. Without this understanding there will be no social cohesion between and among government, business and society. Companies depend for its survival and long term prosperity on society providing the resources like people, raw-materials, service...

  The history of CSR in India runs parallel to the historical development of India. India has t he world’s richesttradition of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The term CSR may be relatively new to India, but the concept dates back to Mauryan history, where philosophers like Kautilya emphasized on ethical practices and principles while conducting business. CSR has been informally practiced in ancient times in form of charity to the poor and disadvantaged. Indian scriptures have at several places mentioned the importance of sharing one’s earning with the deprived section of society. We have a deep rooted culture of sharing and caring.   In the Indian context, the origin of CSR can be traced fromthe Vedic literatures such as the Valmiki Ramayana, the Mahabharata (includes the Bhagavad-Gita) and the Puranas. These literatures were written more than 5,000 years ago in Sanskrit language. The Kautilya's Arthasastra provides an inside-out approach to CSR, which is develop...

Ethical theories that are focusing on the right thing to achieve good for society . The theory of social responsibility is built on a system of ethics, in which decisions and actions must be ethically validated before proceeding. If the action or decision causes harm to society or the environment, then it would be considered to be socially irresponsible. Moral values that are inherent in society create a distinction between right and wrong. In this way, social fairness is believed (by most) to be in the “right”, but more frequently than not this “fairness” is absent. Every individual has a responsibility to act in manner that is beneficial to society and not solely to the individual. Ethics are codes of values and principles that govern the action of a person, or a group of people regarding what is right versus what is wrong (Levine, 2011; Sexty, 2011). Therefore, ethics set standards as to what is good or bad in organizational conduct and decision making (Sexty, 2011). It deals wi...