CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND IT’S IMPACT ON THE COMMUNITY

The Indian cement and Hydro Power Industry, a potential polluter, had won numerous Green awards for fulfilling its commitment towards sustainable community development. Companies are obliged to undertake Corporate Social Responsibility activities which fall under the purview of Companies Act 2013. The stakeholders, mainly the community, expect the companies to undertake Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices and devote part of their profit for the sustainable community development. The local community and society is a resource pool from which any organization gets its manpower, resources and the “License to operate”. As a result, corporate management must integrate societal demands in such a manner that business operates in accordance to societal values. The companies today have integrated the community development goals into business goals by considering responsibilities for the impact of their activities on all stakeholders as well as the environment. The CSR practices support education, health, gender equality, women empowerment, skill development and practices focused towards environmental protection and ecosystem.

The book “Corporate Social Responsibility and its impact on the community is an effort to analyze the CSR practices adopted by the selected companies in Himachal Pradesh in relation to the community and explore the perceptions and expectations that communities hold about CSR practices. This book will help the companies to analyze and prioritize the stakeholder’s expectations, particularly the community, giving utmost importance to need based assessment, to reap the benefits of reputation and goodwill among the community and society at large. This will create in students both respect for emerging concepts of CSR and Community and the confidence they can understand and master it. The choice of selected companies is crucial because such firms badly affect the environment and the ecosystem and is a fertile area for CSR research. In this study, an attempt has been made to assess the impact of CSR practices of these companies on the community by considering community perceptions and expectations.

My vision is to provide a clear picture about the gap between what the companies have shown in their CSR sustainability report and what has been taken on the ground which will further help the readers to understand the concept with much clarity. It is recommended that the companies must design policies related to communication with the community, diversification of CSR activities and CSR guidelines and action strategies for community participation and involvement.