Corporate Social Responsibility Compliance by the Listed Companies in Kerala

Abstract

The introduction of the Corporate Social Responsibility Clause in the Companies Act, 2013 was actually the rise of a new era in the corporate giving. The inclusion of mandate CSR in the Act can be seen as an effort taken by the government to establish equality in the society we live in. Many companies had addressed the rising societal demands in their own ways voluntarily and the state with most literate and educated public is not an exception. It can be observed that almost all the top companies in Kerala have responded to this call in a very positive way. Each of the companies in Kerala had tried to devise the implementation of CSR in unique ways. The objective of the study was to make an assessment of the CSR activities of the Kerala based listed companies during the year 2016-17. The study was aimed at attaining a proper understanding about the CSR initiatives and implementation by the major Companies in Kerala. The CSR activities of the selected companies were compared with the CSR clause in the Companies Act and different rules related to CSR to assess the compliance level of these companies. The study proved that all the eligible Kerala based listed companies were doing CSR in 2016-17.Majority of them had framed a CSR policy the main area of CSR implementation was education. The company which had spent the maximum amount on CSR during the year 2016-17 was Kitex Garments Limited.