There is some good news for education sector. Corporates are deploying maximum amount of CSR funds in education and their allocation has gone up by more than 92 per cent over last three years. Top 100 listed companies by market cap have also increased their CSR expenditure on arts and culture from Rs 49 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 168 crore in 2016-17, according to an analysis of CSR spends of companies by KPMG.
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Odisha have the highest number of CSR projects. However, states with more than 60 per cent concentration of backward districts, account for less than 15 per cent of CSR projects.
The Companies Act mandates every company to spend 2 per cent of their average net profit of preceding three years, if they have a net worth of Rs 500 crore or more, or a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or more, or a net profit of Rs 5 crore or more in a given fiscal year. However, 37 companies have spent less than 2 per cent during 2016-17. Out of them, 12 companies have spent less than 1 per cent. Average spending per company has gone up to Rs 73.6 crore compared to Rs 58.8 crore during 2014-15, up by 25 per cent.
Corporates seem to be more comfortable, implementing projects through an external agency, such as an NGO. A total of 1895 projects were implemented during 2016-17, out of which 967 projects were executed through the implementing agency and 484 projects were executed directly by the companies and 108 through their own foundations.
Companies with women representation had more programmes and expenditure incurred towards reducing inequality. 67 per cent of total activities in the thematic area of reducing inequality were pursued by companies having women representation in the CSR committee.
Even though, CSR and SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) overlap with each other in terms of thematic areas, Only 20 per cent companies have aligned their CSR projects towards SDGs and have made disclosure regarding same in their Annual Report. India ranks at 116 of 157 countries on the SDG Index.