Companies spend ?2,669 crore of CSR funds on education

Of the total amount spent on education, while ₹42.73 crore has gone towards special education, ₹2,626.69 was spent on mainstream education.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a board driven process. A company is empowered to plan, decide, execute and monitor its CSR activities based on the recommendation of its CSR Committee.

The entire CSR architecture is disclosure based and CSR mandated companies are required to file details of CSR expenditure annually in the MCA21 registry of the ministry of corporate affairs.

Education and healthcare are increasingly getting attention in CSR spending as both the sectors have a wider base and need more funding than budgeted by states and the Centre to achieve better education and healthcare outcomes.

The corporate governance framework, along with the existing legal provisions such as mandatory disclosures, accountability of the CSR committee and the board, provisions for statutory audit of accounts of the company, etc., provide sufficient safeguards for implementation of CSR by companies, according to the Union government.