A Pragmatic Approach to CSR Evaluation: A Comprehensive Framework

Abstract

Post Globalization Indian companies started making CSR a part of their Business strategy rather than merely restricting it to charity or philanthropy.  The most significant breakthrough in CSR took place in 2013 with the introduction of idea of ‘mandatory CSR’. With an enormous increase in the scope of CSR, the companies are struggling to align their organizational objectives with CSR goals. The companies are focusing on Stakeholder engagement, identifying implementation partners, capacity building, and effective project implementation. What is amiss is impetus on monitoring and evaluation of CSR activities. A number of CSR rating agencies have come up with their own indices, but they lack in adequate transparency on evaluation criteria and methodology. There is also inter-agency divergence with respect to company’s evaluation and ranking.  This paper proposes a comprehensive and realistic framework which can be implemented in the Indian context for evaluating the CSR activities.