Cement, Energy and Environment

facilitator and regulator' of CSR, the Indian Government also aims to foster effec ve corporate func oning and growth (MCA, 2009). This change in governmental a tude demonstrate India's emergence as a rela onal state, wherein state seeks to achieve the greatest possible synergy between the resources, knowledge and capaci es of the public sector and those of civil society and business organiza ons. The objec ve of this ar cle is, therefore, to study the dominant role of Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Ministry of Mines (MoM), Ministry of Corporate affairs (MCA) in regula ng and dicta ng CSR expenses and ac vi es, and further iden fy the challenges, discuss the mul ple CSR obliga on and some areas of concerns, or/and suggest modifica ons and relaxa on on the final guidelines/ New CSR rule, 2013. The ar cle builds upon available CSR literature, traces the steps undertaken by the Indian Government towards the gradual ins tu onaliza on of CSR in India and then provides insight into the nature of governmental interven on by iden fying the various instruments at the government's disposal. It concludes with an overview of the findings, a brief discussion about some shortcomings in the current government policies, and suggests changes that may be implemented. 2. The Legal Route of CSR in India The CSR is on expedi on in India but companies have yet to realise its complete poten al. “Individual and collabora ve ini a ves con nue to be dominated by self-asser on rather than accountability" (Dasgupta A. 2007). There is indeed no dearth of innova ve CSR ac vi es and projects, but what is absent are dis nct goals embedding of a CSR culture and prac ce and metrics for evalua ng their social impact in improving the plight of many (Kapur and Sengupta, 2010). This dearth has also been evident due to lack of government rules and regula ons. In India there are numerous companies prac cing Corporate Social Responsibility since their ini a on, to recognize few are- Birla, Tata, HCL, Indian Oil Corpora on Ltd., Reliance Industries, State Bank of India etc. In India CSR approach and prac ces adopted by Indian business industry mainly u lized its own features and fundamentals of the global CSR being only slightly incorporated. The philanthropic approach is s ll widespread among Indian companies, though the Indian understanding of CSR has shi ed from tradi onal philanthropy to sustainable business. The community development ac vi es , par cularly in the areas of health and educa on con nue to be dominated in Indian CSR scenario. Most of the Indian companies view their community development projects as important contribu ons to the exis ng development challenges in their region of opera on accountability of businesses is also expanding beyond its former boundaries. Accountability today is also about ensuring the right leadership roles, mee ng stakeholder expecta ons both proac vely and reac vely. The contemporary Indian companies are also focusing on documenta on of CSR policy and voluntary disclosures are given importance, as it renders authen city to companies CSR agenda. On one hand we have companies which have prac ced and published an altruis c approach, towards the society and community in which they operate and on the other there are companies which don't report their CSR spends or even proclaim the social causes they support. The reason being, that there has been no legal cap on these organiza ons. Formerly, it was difficult to evaluate the 31