The Role of Law in Promoting CSR: The Case of Indian Maharatna Public Enterprises

Legal provisions of CSR under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 enactment by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), Government of India (GoI) in 2014 seek to create conducive environment for the corporate to harness and channelize their core competencies for nation building and attaining sustainability goals. CSR rules have resulted in a paradigm shift with social responsibility becoming an integral part of the corporate functioning though the idea of social responsibility. Since the idea of social responsibility is not new to India, the article dissecting Section 135 of the Companies Act and the Companies CSR Policy Rules, 2014 and explore how CSR evolved over time into a legislation. We have used a descriptive case study design to analyse how the corporates have responded to the act by analysing the policy, process of CSR planning, implementation, comparative analysis of trends in the CSR spending, monitoring and impact evaluation of seven largest public sector enterprises, the Maharatna companies. The article goes on to highlights the challenges faced by these corporations in undertaking CSR initiatives throughout the project life cycle. We further discussed the role played by the government in promoting CSR and constraints posed by political ambitions.