CSR's Sub-Par Reputation

India's unique corporate social responsibility (CSR) law was introduced in 2013 under the second United Progressive Alliance government at a time when India Inc.'s reputation was somewhat tarnished.

- KANIKA DATTA

Anil Agarwal's Vedanta was embroiled in a controversy over mining bauxite in a tribal area in Odisha. The famous "no-go area" dispute over allowing or disallowing coal mining in environmentally fragile forests in the east had erupted within the government under pressure from the mining lobby.

The government's optimistic special economic zone (SEZ) policy of 2005 provoked a rash of indiscriminate land acquisition that often defrauded farmers and land losers of rightful compensation. These devious practices prompted the passage of a land acquisition law that made it well-nigh impossible for corporations to acquire land. The Satyam scandal had broken out in all its fraudulent ignominy, raising questions about the legitimacy of independent directors and casting a shadow over India's fabled "IT story." Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's mild suggestion that chief executive officers should pay themselves less in the interests of equity sent C-suites into a tizzy.