The two- and half-day short course is intended for working professionals from Corporate Social Responsibity (CSR) departments/​teams with a minimum of two years of work experience in CSR.

Introduction

The two- and half-day short course is designed to equip the participants with foundational perspectives and skills that are required to make CSR more effective and aligned to development goals and priorities. These include a broad understanding of the purpose of CSR, needs and challenges of the social sector and integrating the CSR policies and strategies with the organisation’s values as well as the requirements of the social sector.

The origins of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in India can be found in Gandhi’s philosophy of trusteeship, which when applied to modern day corporations, goes beyond the narrow focus on ​‘maximising shareholder benefits’ to a larger sense of social responsibility. Therefore, capitalists and corporations with access to resources are now essentially seen as trustees of those resources on behalf of society. This implies that the corporations are an integral part of society and are accountable not only to their shareholders, but also to society in general. 

With a view to mainstream the idea of corporate citizenship and business responsibilities, Government of India introduced the Voluntary guidelines on CSR in 2009 which were refined and reframed as National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental and Economic Responsibilities of Business in 2011. Subsequently, since 1 April 2014, these guidelines were mandated under section 135 of Companies Act 2013. Since then, India has seen a significant growth in CSR spending and as data from 2023 – 24 shows, more than 24,000 companies have spent INR 30,000 crore on CSR activities, a significant proportion of this funding going to sectors such as education, health and sanitation, environment, rural development, gender equality, etc^[1].

Consequently, we are at a stage now where there is both a significant need and interest in deepening CSR engagement with the social sector to support development activities that will reduce socioeconomic inequalities and contribute to inclusive growth. In this course, we seek to improve the understanding and capacity of working professionals in the CSR sector to further such goals. 

The course will be delivered through a mix of participant-led discussions, case studies, group activities, group discussions and lectures. The focus will be on drawing from and building on participants’ experiences. We will invite external resource persons to conduct specific sessions.

[1] CSR in India

Note: Tentative day-wise schedule of the workshop is given below. Please note this is indicative only and the actual sessions/​topics could change with every iteration of the course.