Corporate Social Responsibility in India: Revisiting Carroll’s Pyramid and The Road Ahead

Section 135 of the recently implemented Indian Companies Act, 2013 made Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) mandatory for a certain category of companies in India but a debate on pros and cons of mandatory CSR is still going on. Significant issues in this debate are definition, scope and legitimacy of CSR. The existing definitions of CSR in the literature are congruent to a large extent but there is no universally acceptable definition. This paper attempts to present a conceptual view of CSR in India by tracing its evolution and examining different responsibilities, economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic associated with it, as proposed by Carroll (1991). The paper builds up arguments based on literature, supported by observation and experience of the author and culminates by interpreting CSR as “the commitment of business to abide by law and to operate in an ethical manner when it has the opportunity to do otherwise, with identification and exploitation of business opportunities which generate mutual benefits for business and society.” The paper further proposes three pillars of CSR for a sustainable business and society.