Break Away From the Traditional

Sushil Singh, Mahindra & Mahindra, talks about the implications of CSR guidelines, whether it would deliver ROI, and most importantly, whether it would achieve its goal of inclusive development.

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Has mandating CSR served as a catalyst for change?

Mahindra’s core purpose is to challenge conventional thinking and innovatively use all our resources to drive positive change in the lives of our stakeholders and communities across the world to enable them to ‘RISE’! In line with our core purpose, our CSR vision is to focus our efforts on girl [children], youth, and farmers by innovatively supporting them through programmes designed in the domains of education, health, and environment, while harnessing the power of technology. Hence for Mahindra, CSR goes beyond just adhering to statutory and legal compliances, it focuses on creating social and environmental value for our key stakeholders.

Mandating CSR has definitely brought in change for Mahindra. We are now looking closely at need assessment, the project cycle and the closure and study of impact of CSR projects. Also, from our earlier CSR spend of 1 %, we have now moved up to spending 2%.

Does a high CSR spend alone make a responsible business?