Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR, traditionally looked upon in India as the philanthropic/social activities generally undertaken by Public Sector Enterprises or a handful of large corporate houses like the Tatas, has off late become the buzzword for the corporate world. More and more companies in India have become alive and conscious of the need to give back a part of their profits to society.
Inclusive growth has seen a paradigm shift with even smaller companies wanting to share their growth stories with the underprivileged and weaker sections of society. According to the Corporate Watch Report 2006, the phrase Corporate Social Responsibility was coined in 1953 with the publication of Bowen’s ‘Social Responsibility of Businessmen’, which posed the question ‘what responsibilities to society can business people be reasonably expected to assume?.’
Writing on the subject in the 1960s....
