India’s Experiment with Legislating Corporate Social Responsibility: Reviewing the Decade of Legal Mandate

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-785-9_9How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Corporate Social Responsibility; Companies Act; 2013; Decade under Review; India

Abstract

The enactment of the Companies Act, 2013 (the Act) caused a paradigm shift in the dynamics of corporate governance and regulation. The Act mandated that certain companies spend 2% of their average net profits over the past three years on CSR activities as enumerated in its Seventh Schedule. The shift from a voluntary to a mandatory regime was marked by the corporation’s decision to adopt strict compliance. The Act institutionalised corporate philanthropic giving by introducing a mandatory provision for CSR. In the first decade of its implementation, the CSR provision has undergone various amendments, whereby the government has attempted to minimise bottlenecks and further create a conducive space for CSR in the era of dynamic changes, digitisation, climate change, and instability. Thus far, the provision has been a ‘living law,’ with changes made from time to time to facilitate effective adoption by corporations. The emerging legal landscape for CSR in India pushes for a transition from CSR to strategic CSR. Furthermore, mandating CSR, strengthening sustainability reporting procedures, and evolving ESG norms represent incremental steps towards the emerging business sustainability regime in India. The laudable completion of a decade of the mandatory CSR regime has been a mixed experience, offering valuable lessons as the country and the world approach the attainment of the 2030 Agenda. In this context, the present paper outlines the key milestones in the evolution of CSR law in India during its first decade of implementation (i.e., 2014–2024). It further analyses the trends in CSR spending and examines the challenges faced by Indian companies in integrating the mandatory CSR regime. This trend analysis and critical appraisal will not only enrich the existing literature but also explore the need for reforms, proposing a way forward for regime 2.0 to improve efficacy and impact.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Vidhi Madaan Chadda
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/07
TI  - India’s Experiment with Legislating Corporate Social Responsibility: Reviewing the Decade of Legal Mandate
BT  - Proceedings of the UUM 13th International Legal Conference 2025 (UUMILC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 119
EP  - 132
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-785-9_9
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-785-9_9
ID  - Chadda2026
ER  -