Over the past decade, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India has evolved remarkably— from sporadic acts of corporate goodwill to a legally mandated mechanism, and now towards becoming a powerful force in nation-building. It’s no surprise, then, that the theme of the CSR Times Awards 2025, “The Role of CSR in Mission Viksit Bharat by 2047”, sparked vibrant discussion among policymakers, corporate leaders, and development practitioners.
This is not a nominal figure. In FY 2023– 24 alone, according to the National CSR Portal, approximately `34,908.75 crore was spent by nearly 27,200 companies. These investments spanned critical sectors such as education, healthcare, rural development, social welfare, sports, and the environment sectors, essential for India’s leap from a developing nation to a developed one by 2047.
Despite these efforts, the ground reality of many development indicators reveals a sobering truth: progress is uneven and often insufficient. This is where CSR holds transformative potential, not just as funding, but as a strategic tool with a clear developmental vision. But to truly catalyse change, CSR must move beyond compliance and become a purposeful, well-integrated force, aligned with national priorities.
A Landscape of Promise and Challenge
India’s CSR ecosystem today is among the most dynamic globally, with steadily growing investments and participation from a wide spectrum of companies, including unlisted and small enterprises. Yet, the distribution of CSR funds remains skewed.
What Makes CSR Meaningful?
Having served as a jury member for the CSR Times Awards for three consecutive years, I’ve had the privilege of reviewing a diverse array of projects. The most impactful ones, across geographies and sectors, had a few common threads:
Prioritising Environment-Centric Projects: Climate change and environmental degradation are no longer abstract threats—they are real, measurable, and already affecting millions. CSR investments in environmental sustainability are therefore not just meaningful, but essential. Yet, they remain a fraction of total CSR spending.
Across the Himalayan states, for instance, only around `52 crore was spent on environmental CSR projects in recent years, just 0.15% of the national CSR pool. Even within states like Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, funding is skewed toward the plains, leaving fragile hill regions behind. Projects like afforestation, river and spring rejuvenation, water conservation, and solid waste management must be scaled and prioritised urgently.
Since I work in this field, I am aware of the inadequacies and criticality of such projects finding priority amongst the CSR funding.
Alignment with Core Competencies: CSR efforts resonate more when they leverage a company’s inherent strengths. A technology firm supporting digital literacy, or a pharma company investing in rural healthcare delivery, ensures both impact and authenticity. It also fosters innovation, efficiency, and continuous learning through feedback from the ground.
Opportunity-Driven Action: Union Minister Shri Nitin Gadkari, the chief guest at the CSR Times 2025 event, aptly illustrated the power of identifying latent opportunities. He cited the example of desilting old ponds and repurposing the excavated material for road construction, a solution that simultaneously tackled water scarcity and infrastructure development. Such integrative thinking should guide CSR planning.
Community-Centric Design: The most sustainable CSR initiatives are those rooted in community needs. They cocreate solutions with local stakeholders, ensure ownership, and build social capital. CSR must shift from charity to capacity-building, empowering communities to sustain initiatives long after the funding ends.
Impact over Optics: While events and branding have their place, CSR should be driven by measurable, long-term outcomes—whether that’s literacy rates, health metrics, or ecological restoration.
Rigorous impact assessment and transparent reporting are critical to ensure that every rupee delivers real, lasting change. Equitable Distribution: The current CSR landscape is disproportionately tilted.
Around 75% of total CSR spending goes to three sectors: education, healthcare, and rural development. Moreover, over 60% of the funds are contributed by companies in Maharashtra and Delhi-NCR. Remote and underdeveloped regions—such as the North-East and hill districts—receive barely 3–4% of total CSR resources. This imbalance must be addressed if CSR is to serve as a truly national engine of progress.
It also needs to be appreciated that the projects for the betterment of hilly regions, which provide the most forest cover and water, need better attention for the good of the environment in particular and humanity in general.
How to Make CSR Engaging?
Even the best-designed initiatives can falter without stakeholder engagement. Making CSR engaging is not just about visibility—it’s about building connection, commitment, and collaboration. Some of the steps below could help make the engagement better.
Storytelling with Substance: People connect with people, not pie charts. Sharing powerful stories of transformation, backed by robust data, can inspire employees, attract partners, and earn public trust.
Collaborative Ecosystems for Convergence: CSR cannot operate in silos. Partnerships with NGOs, governments, and peer companies allow the pooling of resources and expertise for greater collective impact. Technology as an Enabler: From real-time monitoring to interactive dashboards and AI-driven impact analytics, technology can help track progress, optimise interventions, and communicate outcomes in meaningful ways.
Employee Engagement: Involving employees in CSR through volunteering, ideation, and project monitoring cultivates a culture of empathy and ownership within organisations. It also sparks innovation and strengthens alignment between corporate purpose and personal values.
From Compliance to Catalysis
CSR in India stands at a crossroads. We can continue treating it as a statutory obligation, a box to be ticked. Or we can reimagine it as a strategic lever for inclusive, sustainable growth. When infused with vision, aligned with national missions like Viksit Bharat@2047, and implemented with accountability, CSR becomes far more than corporate duty. It becomes a tool of transformation, one that touches lives, rebuilds ecosystems, and helps shape the India we aspire to become.
Let us all rise to that vision.
