Corporate social responsibility: A study of select public sector banks in India

Abstract

The banking Sector is considered to be the life line of any Economy. The entire economy of the country adversely depends on the performance of this sector, who have been contributing through various welfare initiatives, donations and in-kind support to charities for decades to the society. Again, Social responsibility is not a new term for the Indian banking sector. After the enactment, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become obligatory for a certain class of companies in India, This paper discusses the spending pattern of Indian Banking Sector contributing towards CSR activities; so as to know how much they have spent and need to spend further with the mandatory CSR, which has been enforced from 1st April 2014 in India, helping the bank management to project where they stand when compared to their peers, thereby facilitating the CSR stakeholders to understand how Indian banks have made their CSR spending, and also aid banks to their future CSR project implementation. The study is based on secondary data taken from the annual reports of banks, presented in graphs and tables, collected from 12 public sector banks in India. The CSR spending analysis of the 12 banks selected from the public sector reveals that these banks are not yet prepared for 2 percent of their three-year average net profit spending on CSR projects.