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Author: Samhita - CGF

FAQs On The CSR Law Amendments 2021

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, on 22nd January 2021, updated the Companies Corporate Social Responsibility Rules. These CSR law amendments bring several significant changes to the national CSR policy including an increased focus on impact assessment, decriminalisation of non-compliance, greater inclusion of international organizations, and provisions altering the guidelines for management of excess funds and surplus expenditures. 

Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions (FAQ) about the CSR Amendment Rules 2021:

What activities qualify as CSR activities?

According to the latest amendment, the following expenditure will now be included in the list of CSR activities:

  1. Research & development of new vaccines, medication, and medical devices related to COVID-19 in the firm’s normal course of business
  2. Overseas training of Indian sports personnel representing any State or Union territory at national level or India at international level.

According to the latest amendment, the following expenditure will NOT be included in the list of CSR activities:

  1. Contribution of any amount directly or indirectly to any political party
  2. Activities benefiting employees of the company
  3. Activities on sponsorship basis for deriving marketing benefits for its products or services

What all must a company’s CSR Policy mandatorily include?

A company’s CSR Policy needs to mandatorily include:

  1. List of CSR projects that are approved to be undertaken
  2. The manner of execution of such projects
  3. The details of utilization of funds for the projects
  4. Implementation schedules for the projects
  5. Monitoring and reporting mechanism for the projects
  6. Details of impact assessment, if any, for the projects undertaken by the company

What are “Administrative Overheads” and what does the definition include?

Under the new rules, “Administrative Overheads” will only include expenses directly incurred by the company on “ general management & administration” of CSR functions. 

Therefore, the expenses incurred by the company on designing, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of a particular Corporate Social Responsibility project will not be included as part of the administrative overheads but as a CSR expenditure.

Also, the board shall ensure that the administrative overheads shall not exceed five percent of total CSR expenditure of the company for the financial year.

What is the penalty for non-compliance to CSR rules and obligations?

A significant departure from the erstwhile CSR policy, non-compliance to the CSR rules and obligations will no longer be treated as a criminal offence. These will now be treated as civil wrongs.

What CSR related information does a company have to disclose publicly:

The 2021 CSR amendment mandates that every company must disclose the following:

  1. Composition of the CSR Committee
  2. The CSR Policy
  3. Projects approved by the Board 

Has impact assessment of a company’s CSR projects made mandatory in the new CSR law amendments?

Impact assessment is only mandatory for companies with CSR obligations of INR10 crore or more of any and all projects with outlays of INR1 crore or more. These Impact assessments must be undertaken by an independent agency.

What is an international organization and what CSR functions can it fulfill?

A company may engage International Organisations for designing, monitoring and evaluation of the CSR projects and for capacity building of their own personnel for CSR.

“International organization” means an organisation notified by the Central Government as an international organization under section 3 of the United Nations (Privileges and Immunities) Act, 1947.

What is to be done with additional income being generated through a company’s CSR projects?

Any surplus income being generated through a company’s CSR activities can not form part of the company’s profit. The surplus shall be reinvested into the same project or shall be transferred to the Unspent CSR Account.

What happens if a company spends more than its required CSR expenditure?

Any CSR expenditure that exceeds the required amount can be carried forward to the next three years.

Can the company create or acquire any capital assets using its CSR expenditure? 

CSR funds may be spent on creating or acquiring capital assets. Although, these capital assets can not be held by the company. They must be held by any one of the following entities:

  1. A Section 8 company
  2. A registered public Trust or Society having charitable objects 
  3. Beneficiaries of said projects
  4. Public authorities

Is there any provision for projects that go on for longer than one year in the new CSR Law Amendments?

A new concept of an “ongoing project” has been added to the rules. ‘Ongoing Project’ means a multi-year project undertaken by a Company in fulfilment of its CSR obligation having timelines not exceeding three years. These can include projects that were initially not multi-year projects but were extended based on reasonable justification.

What is a Utilization Certificate?

A Utilization Certificate must now be presented by the CFO to the Board, certifying that all the funds allocated by the Board have been utilized in a manner approved by the board.

Impact Assessments are top priority – What do the new CSR rules say

On January 22, 2021, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs amended the earlier CSR Rules of 2014 and notified the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Amendment Rules 2021, to make impact assessment mandatory for companies undertaking CSR activities and CSR expenditure above a specified threshold. The move aims to create accurate parameters in assessing the impact of CSR activities by shifting the focus from expenditure alone to impact assessment, and improve the quality of CSR projects while enhancing accountability and transparency.

This FAQ is a result of collaboration between Samhita & Centre For Advancement of Philanthropy. It has been written with the guidance of Noshir Dadrawala

Following are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) about impact assessment:

Q1. What is the need for impact assessment?

Impact assessments help funders, grant-makers and companies to understand and evaluate the impact of their social investments in programmes and projects on their target beneficiaries or society. The findings of an assessment also help funders and companies to make evidence-based decisions in implementation and identify hurdles, allowing for programme continuity, scale, sustainability, efficiency, etc.

Q2. Do all companies need to conduct impact assessments?

According to the January 2021 amendment, impact assessment is mandatory for companies with a CSR budget of INR 10 crore or more in any fiscal year and all projects with outlays of INR 1 crore or more. These impact assessments must be undertaken by an independent agency.

However, it is suggested as best practise that impact assessment be undertaken for all projects as standard procedure,. Especially long term projects.

Q3. According to the new amendment, when must companies undertake impact assessments?

At least one year after programme implementation is complete.

Q4. If a company has a multi-year project, should the impact assessment be carried out after completion of the project?

Yes. As per Rule No. 8, if companies have multi-year programmes (say 3 years), impact assessment needs to be conducted after completion of three years of the programme. Additionally, a follow up assessment needs to be conducted one year after the completion of the programme to better understand the programme’s after effects.

However, if programmes are renewed or scaled up after each financial year, they would be treated as individual single year programmes, and separate impact assessments should be taken up every year.

Q5. Who can conduct an impact assessment?

Companies or their CSR initiatives cannot conduct impact assessments (selfassessment) on their own. An independent agency must be engaged for the assessment.

Q6. Is there a limit on the expense for undertaking impact assessment?

Yes, impact assessment related expenditure may be booked as a CSR expense as long as it does not exceed 5% of the total CSR spending or INR 50,00,000, whichever is less.

Q7. Is the limit applicable on the entire CSR budget or per project?

The limit is applicable on the total CSR budget of the financial year.

Q8. Will the cost for researchers/consultants/agencies be counted as part of the INR 50 lakh or 5% limit or can the spending be accounted for outside that?

Under the amended rules, “Administrative overheads” will now mean expenses incurred by the company for ‘general management and administration’ of Corporate Social Responsibility functions in the company but shall not include the expenses directly incurred for the designing, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of a particular Corporate Social Responsibility project or programme.

Further, a Company undertaking impact assessment may book the expenditure towards Corporate Social Responsibility for that financial year, which shall not exceed five percent of the total CSR expenditure for that financial year or fifty lakh rupees, whichever is less.

Thus, in our opinion, cost for researchers/consulting is neither part of the INR 50 lakh cap, nor the 5% cap on Admin expenditure

Q9. Can a project conduct impact assessment prior to completion of one year (short duration project) or should it wait for one year? If done earlier, would it be counted as part of the compliance?

The project should have completed at least one year. If it is an on-going project of three years, it would make sense to study impact only on completion of three years.

If you have any queries, want to know how to undertake an impact assessment or connect with the Samhita Impact Assessment team, feel free to reach out to us at csr@dev.samhita.org

To know more about the other 2021 CSR Amendments check out Samhita’s detailed FAQ.

How can CSR and philanthropy respond to the second COVID-19 wave?

The COVID-19 Pandemic disrupted all aspects of the economy and our lives.  For the first time ever, the focus shifted to the state of public health infrastructure, resources and quality of delivery.  It also clearly brought home the direct impact of health of a community on the nation’s economic recovery. The India Protectors’ Alliance (IPA) was a quick and agile response to the situation at hand – it quickly focussed on the needs and skills of frontline health workers (the protectors) and infrastructure needs of the healthcare systems as outlined by local administrations. The IPA today is a collaborative of 30 companies and has already crossed the milestone of impacting 500K lives.

The second wave of the pandemic is already upon us and seems to have settled in for the long haul.  By most estimates, the country shall continue to witness multiple waves till such time that the vaccination drive covers a critical mass of the population.  At IPA, we have redoubled our efforts and expanded the scope as our understanding of the needs on the ground evolves. 

IPA remains committed to responding to the immediate needs as well as strengthen the health ecosystem to better manage future health emergencies. Based on our experience of working with communities, state governments and public health experts, we have put together a list of interventions that need immediate funding and will also see long term benefits.  Some of them are detailed below:

Oxygen

Oxygenation has been a critical need for managing complications of COVID19 since the virus primarily attacks the lungs and upper respiratory tract of the patients. Also, as the body of knowledge about disease management grew, it was understood that oxygen support can be provided with a combination of low-flow, hi-flow oxygen concentrators and ventilators depending on the severity of the disease.

IPA has curated the a program to provide oxygen concentrators, ventilators and other equipment to small private / government hospitals. IPA is also working with over 100 implementation partners from all over the country to be able to deploy them quickly even into the rural areas.

Oxygenation equipment supports not only the COVID19 patients but also helps build future capacity of hospitals to ensure safe delivery of children, treat cardiovascular diseases, treat accidents and trauma patients and other emergencies.  

Vaccination

With the arrival of vaccines, we now have a real fighting chance against the virus. To get back to a semblance of normalcy, it is imperative that masses get vaccinated at the earliest possible. Currently, the vaccines are facing some supply issues but that is temporary in nature. 

With the recent announcements by the MoHFW, the vaccination program has got a big shot in the arm. 

  • More vaccine manufacturers have been given permission,
  • Age group of vaccination has been expanded to include 18years and above,
  • State governments have been given permission to procure vaccines as per local needs and
  • Vaccines are allowed to be sold on open markets. 

IPA has curated following programs to help you:

  • Vaccinate vulnerable communities in your catchment areas 
  • Workplace vaccination for corporates or stakeholder communities
  • Create awareness and educate communities about the benefits of vaccines and overcome vaccine hesitancy
  • Work with private providers to ensure everyone has vaccine access in the near future

The following programs are already underway :

  • Mass immunization COVID vaccine drive: We have already started our program in some districts of Maharashtra & AP for mobilizing marginalized communities to private hospitals & getting them registered & vaccinated. Program can be expanded to other critical cities depending on the on-ground requirement and client’s preference.
  • Mobile vaccination: Mobile unit across India with capability to roll out such unique initiatives across geographies. Our implementation partner team has already received an approval from Hon. commissioner Rajesh Patil of Pune’s PCMC. Rolling out this in Pune, expanding to tribal areas in Maharashtra and eventually Pan India.
  • IEC content and awareness program: With misinformation or no information for people living in media dark areas, our team is creating content with experts and will mobilize our on-ground teams to provide right information and support it with IVR consultation.
  • Modules for healthcare practitioners: Creation of FAQ documents, training manual for HCP to support the MoHFW and disseminating this to relevant stakeholders.

Masks & Masking

Vaccines are here but masks are more important than ever.  In fact, most experts now recommend double masking. There is an ongoing need to continuously reinforce messaging around the need to #PehnoSahi or masking right. 

IPA has curated programs focusing on:

  • Continuing to support programs such as the Billion Masks Initiative (a MIT, Standford, Deshpande Foundation, Tata Power supported program) to ramp up mask manufacturing through SHGs and connecting them to PharmEasy, Amazon and Flipkart
  • Large scale mask donations bundled with vaccines 
  • Mask + vaccine campaign with CEOs and leaders exhorting their employees and stakeholders through personal pledges / declarations, eg. “I have taken the vaccine and will continue to wear the mask because I care for you.”

Insurance

Healthcare expenditure drags millions of Indians into poverty every year. The impulsive lockdowns have had a similar effect on many communities who are staggering under the double impact of loss of wages and threat of infection. More than ever, there is a need to bring in more frontline workers (sanitation workers, rag pickers, retailers, suppliers etc) under the ambit of health insurance.  IPA is working on curating an insurance product that will help communities take control of their own health and proactively seek healthcare services in the future as well.  A community which has assured access to healthcare participates in economic activity more enthusiastically and contributes to nation building.

Tele-Consultations

The second wave of COVID has started affecting the villages and smaller towns, which were earlier spared the onslaught.  Access to medical help is sketchy at best especially in the rural areas.  Tele-Consultation is the fastest way to enable vulnerable and far-flung communities to access medical advice for management of mild COVID cases.  This stops the overcrowding and pressure on District Hospitals and Tertiary care hospitals in bigger cities and Metros.  With our solution partners, IPA can set this service up really quickly and this is a viable, measurable, low cost yet impactful way to make a difference in the war against COVID.

Strengthening healthcare and sanitation infrastructure

It is essential to ensure that communities have access to hygienic sanitation facilities and fully equipped healthcare facilities, even more so during these trying times.

With Samhita’s significant experience in WASH, IPA can help facilitate upgradation of infrastructure to best serve the communities that are important to you.

The India Protectors’ Alliance continues to work in mission mode to respond to strengthen the country’s fight against the coronavirus.

It would be great if we can get on a quick call to understand your priorities so that we can help you maximize your impact on the ground.  We would also like to hear if there are any specific or customized interventions that you would like us to co-create under the IPA. To know how you can help or to partner with the IPA, reach us at meera.b@dev.samhita.org or fill in the form shared below.

[hubspot type=form portal=9191947 id=3d6e8c3b-36b7-4b69-8e70-c248a021fee1]

Vaccinating India: How can CSR make a difference?

India has been reporting over 3,00,000 fresh cases of COVID-19 daily since April 2021, the highest since the pandemic broke out, a clear sign that we need to ramp up immunisation to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

India’s vaccination programme was flagged off in January 2021. The Government has cleared Serum Institute’s COVISHIELD (in collaboration with AstraZeneca) and Bharat Biotech’s COVAXIN. Many other vaccines are in the pipeline and in advanced stages of being launched.

The current vaccination coverage accounts for a very marginal percentage of the country’s population and a collaboration between governments, corporates and civil society will be critical for success.

The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility

While the guidelines on corporate involvement keep evolving, the latest CSR amendment allows companies to account for expenditure on COVID-19 vaccines and activities that promote vaccination as CSR spending. However, according to the norms, companies can only claim vaccination cost as CSR activity if they inoculate local communities in a non-discriminatory manner. Vaccinating employees can not be included as a CSR expense. Samhita and the India Protectors Alliance (IPA) have identified three challenges that the vaccination drive currently faces and have put together approaches that could help overcome them.

Strengthening the vaccine drive

Long queues and large congregations at vaccination sites are a common sight, and must be addressed with a more efficient distribution system.
Additionally, with India witnessing significant vaccine wastage, it is imperative to promote optimal utilisation and drastically reduce waste.

To help distribute vaccines more efficiently, IPA has designed the following interventions:
● Deploying and administering the vaccine in large proportions. With the support of private organisations, large cohorts could be covered in a short span of time.
● Identification, registration and mobilisation of beneficiaries at scale.
● Inoculation process, post inoculation monitoring; providing a robust technology platform to manage the programme and monitoring the vaccination of the beneficiaries.
● Community-wide immunisation drives to inoculate at risk vulnerable communities who have either very little or no awareness about the vaccination programme.

Vaccine hesitancy

Vaccine hesitancy refers to the delay in acceptance or refusal to take the vaccine despite the widespread availability of vaccine services. This is influenced by factors such as complacency, convenience, and overconfidence.

To to build greater confidence in the vaccine, IPA has curated the following programmes:
● Leveraging community media platforms for community engagement on COVID-19 vaccine-related information and other health related information among remote, underserved communities in India.
● Pre-recorded messages uploaded on the platform for all the callers to listen to, updated on a weekly basis (more frequently, if required), based on the most frequently asked questions by users or the misinformation reported by field teams. New content pieces will also be developed based on trending questions.

Capacity building & training

Deployment of sufficiently trained vaccinators is the need of the hour. All health workers involved in the implementation of vaccination need to have adequate knowledge and skills to ensure safe and efficient vaccine administration. Training must cover a wide range of aspects — including knowledge on storage, handling, delivery and waste management of COVID-19 vaccines. Training health workers is also critical to address vaccine hesitancy and build public trust.

To better equip healthcare workers, IPA’s interventions include:
● Supporting MoHFW and State Government agencies in developing the healthcare workers’ training manual and creating additional IEC assets such as factsheets and FAQ documents in regional languages.
● Printing and dissemination of the training manual and IEC materials to relevant stakeholders.
● Conducting social mobilisation and advocacy activities.

Vaccination Programme for a leading Corporate Donor

A leading Insurance company, in partnership with Samhita and the IPA, has started a vaccination programme in Maharashtra & Andhra Pradesh which address both community needs and SBI’s priorities on worker’s health and workplace safety.

This is a comprehensive programme designed to assist marginalised and vulnerable communities at every step of the way, from pre-mobilisation to complete vaccination to follow ups.

We are looking for Corporate partners to mobilize communities and get them vaccinated at hospitals or government booths or any other set up approved by the MoHFW.

To learn more and join us in our efforts to immunise India, contact us at csr@dev.samhita.org or fill in the form shared below.

[hubspot type=form portal=9191947 id=3d6e8c3b-36b7-4b69-8e70-c248a021fee1]

India Protectors Alliance – Catalytic achievements with the support of HUL, BMGF and RBL Bank

Over the past two years, we have experienced a unique and unprecedented situation due to the COVID -19 outbreak and subsequent lockdowns. The multiplicity nature of COVID-19 needed an all-hands-on approach that saw corporates, philanthropists, civil societies, and individuals come together to support immediate relief efforts and save lives.

Corporate India and non-profit organisations’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the sector at its best to create a better normal, such as The India Protectors’ Alliance (IPA). The IPA was founded in early 2020 with the support of Hindustan Unilever, RBL Bank and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to protect the most vulnerable and at-risk communities. Through this INR 92 Crores Alliance and the collaboration of 59 funders and 52 implementation partners, we have impacted over 5.3 million beneficiaries across underserved communities, vulnerable populations, and frontline Covid warriors such as healthcare and sanitation workers.

IPA’s Approach: what we did & how we did it

IPA was constituted to equip workers in the healthcare and sanitation sectors to pursue their livelihoods safely by protecting them from COVID-19.

Initially, IPA helped fulfil immediate and critical needs like PPE kits and masks for the frontline health and sanitation workers. However, as the body of knowledge about COVID-19 and its management evolved, IPA too evolved to incorporate other interventions, especially during the second wave of the pandemic. We began working on training and capacity building programmes, providing

Key principles followed:

Our Achievements

Total Beneficiaries : 5.3 Million

A) Healthcare Interventions

Strengthening the COVID-19 vaccination drive: We have inoculated over 3.02 million citizens in high-risk and remote areas across 99 districts in 19+ states through our COVID-19 vaccination drives.

Enabling access to critical care equipment & protective gear: Protective gears were supplied to frontline healthcare workers and police officers. Key medical equipment such as ECG machines and maternal monitors were also supplied for regular patients. 30 implementation partners helped supply this equipment across the country, thus helping us reach over 0.35 million people.

Addressing the medical oxygen crisis: In partnership with nine implementation partners, IPA procured and distributed 950 oxygen concentrators and set up four 500 LPM oxygen plants across the country. This helped impact over 0.3 million hospital patients across the country.

Training on COVID and non-COVID skills & knowledge: Through capacity building of healthcare workers and community awareness programs, we impacted nearly 0.13 million lives.



B) Sanitation Interventions

Strengthening community sanitation : Safe sanitation interventions were initiated across Maharashtra to build and improve access to sanitation infrastructures in schools and urban slum communities. Interventions were also planned for women working in informal workplaces. We impacted over 1.42 million lives.

Empowering sanitation workers: With focused sanitation safety, short-term relief and skilling, and entrepreneurial livelihood programs, the IPA has built the long-term resilience of more than 0.082 million sanitation workers.

Key Learnings & Takeaways

1. Collaboration across 59 funders and 52 implementation and knowledge partners quickly proved the potential of a collective impact that can be envisioned for any prospective project.

2. These learnings further underlined the need of building medium to long term infrastructural and training solutions to strengthen the health systems of India.

3. The importance of agility within organisations to take swift strategic decisions and act on them, especially during a crisis, plays a crucial role in effective and timely relief management.

4. Partnerships with the Government are critical and could unlock significant scale-up opportunities.

IPA’s Response to India’s second wave of COVID-19 

IPA Supporting Public Institutions

#PehnoSahi – A corporate mask wearing initiative

Additionally, the Alliance collectively championed mask usage through an online campaign called #Pehnosahi. The campaign was shared by several industry leaders and Alliance members to urge their employees and networks to wear masks correctly for a safe back-to-work transition.

TESTIMONIALS

“The team at the India Protectors Alliance has impressed us with their national reach – from Maharashtra, to Delhi, to Kolkata – to support our frontline healthcare and sanitation workers during the COVID-19 crisis. Thanks to their guidance, our support for critical hospital equipment and PPE kits across these critical locations was executed in a timely, hassle-free manner.”

– Sandeep Batra – Chief Financial Officer, Crompton Greaves

“India Protectors Alliance was extremely helpful and effective in gathering the COVID-19 needs from our stakeholder communities. Its widespread implementation network and total commitment enabled us to expeditiously support the healthcare workers within these communities through the distribution of PPE kits.”

– Sudhanshu Vats – Chief Executive Officer, Essel Propack

Indian NGO Fundraising “Bright Spots” Report: Lifting Up What Works in Raising Money from Individuals in India

This report is Part II of a research project by UC Berkeley Director of Philanthropy and Fulbright Scholar Morry Rao Hermón, in collaboration with Samhita Social Ventures and the Collective Good Foundation, to help fill a gap in the knowledge base about what nonprofits are doing, and what is working, in the individual donor fundraising space in India.

In Part I, we conducted an in-depth survey of Samhita GoodCSR’s extensive network of over 4,000 NGOs from across India’s social sector about their funding sources, resource development methods, and donor engagement strategies. The findings from that 40-question assessment tool were shared in the “Indian Giving Benchmarking Report: Results of Indian NGO Survey on Fundraising from Individuals” (Samhita Social Ventures December 2019). As the first biennial ‘benchmarking’ study, we hope that Indian nonprofits will use this comprehensive data set as a practical tool for comparing their performance against the averages in the field.

In this new report, we lift up examples of fundraising “bright spots” — organizations that are having unparalleled success raising money from India’s burgeoning middle class.  We selected three nonprofits to profile including:

  1. Light of Life Trust
  2. SNEHA
  3. Teach for India

These case studies provide a roadmap that other Indian nonprofits can follow in their own resource mobilization efforts. Through a series of ‘system’ interviews, we unpacked the reasons behind their success, drawing out Ten Guiding Principles shared by the ‘bright spots’. This top ten list can be boiled down into five core competencies that Indian NGOs should keep in mind when building a base of life-long donors:

  1. Be unapologetic about asking for money

     2.  Focus on your outcomes and the money will follow

     3.   Find ways to engage your donors in the mission

     4.   Invest in professional fundraising staff

     5.   Foster a “Culture of Philanthropy” within your organization

At the end of this 30-page report we provide practical tips on how NGOs can go about adopting these principles in their own organizations so that they can diversify their revenues, grow their programs, and sustain their operations over time.

Download the Report

A note to our readers:

We are looking for other stories of success in the individual fundraising arena, so if you know of examples worth lifting up we would love to hear about them!  We are especially interested in identifying fundraising ‘bright spots’ that represent smaller nonprofits, and those in rural areas (including remote regions of India). Please email me your thoughts about this or other topics at morryhermon@berkeley.edu. Happy to answer any questions about my research, what we are learning, and support you on your journey!

Creating a Truly “Social” Stock Exchange

India is gearing up to set up a Social Stock Exchange (SSE) on the recommendation of India’s Finance Minister in 2019. After the initial suggestions by the Working Group in 2020, a new Technical Committee constituted by SEBI is expected to release more granular recommendations soon. SSEs are still in a nascent stage of development, having come into existence less than two decades ago. Only three out of seven SSEs are still active across the globe.

At this critical inflection point, the International Centre for Not-For-Profit Law (ICNL) and Samhita Social Ventures have undertaken an extensive research study to review seven SSEs (in Brazil, Portugal, South Africa, Jamaica, the UK, Singapore and Canada) to provide the most comprehensive analysis so far and offer suggestions for India’s SSE.

This report also analyses the recommendations of the first Working Group in relation to setting up India’s SSE.

Click here to download the report

No real cause for concern, says Noshir Dadrawala of CAP on the Finance Minister’s statement on CSR Consultants

While responding to a query in Parliament, Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs stated that there is no provision of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) consultant in Section 135 of the Companies (CSR Policy) Act, 2014.

As the statement unnerved companies, firms and practitioners, Noshir Dadrawala of the ‘Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy’ compiled a detailed response that explains and interprets the FM’s statement, pointing out that there is no real cause for concern.

Click here to read Noshir’s response

Overview:

  • From the inception of the law, neither Section 135 of the Indian Companies Act nor the Rules had any specific provision for “CSR Consultants”
  • “CSR consultants” cannot be considered as CSR “implementing agencies” nor can “CSR consultants” carry out CSR Activities as implementing agencies
  • The FM has said that CSR is a Board driven process and the Board of the company is empowered to plan, decide, execute and monitor the CSR activities of the company based on the recommendation of its CSR Committee
  • If a company decides to undertake CSR on its own, it may engage the professional services of an expert “CSR consultant” or “consulting agency” to help the company decide, execute and monitor the chosen CSR activities of the company based on the recommendation of its CSR Committee
  • The expenses directly incurred by the company (including paying professional fees to an agency specializing in a certain discipline), for the designing, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of a particular CSR project or programme would not fall under “administrative overheads” and neither would the cap of five per cent be applicable. The fees would be treated as professional fees for expert services rendered by the agency.

CSR Journal | No provision of CSR consultant in Companies Act, Nirmala Sitharaman confirms in Parliament

Why the health of sanitation workers needs to be our society’s concern?

“In a world without sanitation workers, business and daily life would come to a halt”.

It may seem too extreme to state but is nevertheless true. Without sanitation workers, the functioning of our ecosystem will halt as supply chains of products and services are adversely affected.

Samhita believes that it is essential to ensure preventive health care for our sanitation workers to not only ensure the smooth functioning of our society but also enable them to live a life of dignity. Our WASH platform and, more recently, our IPA platform aims to put money where our mouth is.

To know more about our approach, read this article written by Priya Naik, Ragini Menon and Tushar Carhavlo for CNBC-TV18.

Click here to read the article

Returnable grants: Reimagining credit for a better normal

The pandemic and its harsh impact on informal workers and macro and nano enterprises inspired the creation of the Returnable Grant (RG).

RG is one where there is no legal obligation to repay; the expectation is only ‘moral’, i.e., the recipient is encouraged to repay when she has achieved some intended milestones of financial recovery.

RGs are designed to fill a specific gap in India’s credit ecosystem for small businesses: dealing with short term emergency situations or external shocks.

Our CEO, Priya Naik and Varad Pande (वरद पाण्डे) from Omidya Network India write about how Revive Alliance is deploying the Returnable Grant to aid recovery and resilience of informal workers and small businesses in the recent edition of Economic Times.

The RG enables funders to benefit 5-7x the number of individuals when compared to a simple grant. Once an RG is repaid, it circulates back into the system to support others with similar needs.

A comprehensive learning and evaluation plan built into the REVIVE platform will provide further data on suitability, behaviours, utilisation and so on.

Click here to read the entire article

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