HOW BUSINESS LEADERS CAN SHAPE CSR AND NURTURE GEN Z TALENT

As the sun rises over the Teesta river in East Sikkim, a bunch of mobile medical vans crisscross the mountainous terrain to provide medical aid right at the doorsteps of the villagers inhabiting this remote part of the country.

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The 'Health on Wheels' Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative, spearheaded by a pharmaceutical company, is managed by a team of healthcare professionals who conduct diagnostic tests, provide consultations and hand over medications to the villagers. They also organize health camps across 15 villages where the program is currently underway. Probably, projects such as this one in a remote hinterland would not have been possible without a landmark legislation coming into effect on 1st April 2014, that ushered in mandatory provision of CSR under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013.

Over the last decade, CSR has helped transform the lives of millions of people across communities in diverse parts of the country. Corporate India has made CSR the bedrock of its vision to launch innovative development projects in a range of thematic areas such as education, healthcare, environment, sports, rural development and sustainable livelihoods. In the last 10 years, CSR spending has tripled to touch INR 34,909 crores in 2023-24, as per the data from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Although, education and healthcare projects received the lion's share of this funding, there is growing interest by companies to fund projects in water security, sports and skill development.