Corporate social responsibility CSR is about how business align their values and behavior with the expectation

and needs of stake holder not just customers and investors, but also employees ,suppliers , communities , regulators, special interest groups and society as whole. CSR describes a companys commitment to be accountable to its stakeholders CSR demands that business manage the economic, social, and environmental impacts of their operations to maximize the benefits and minimize the down side. Key CSR issues include governance, environmental management, stakeholder engagement, labour standards, employee and community relations, social equity , responsible sourcing and human rights. CSR is not only about fulfilling a duty to society; it should also bring competitive advantage. Through an effective CSR programme, companies can: Improve access to capital Sharpen decision-making and reduce risk Enhance brand image Uncover previously hidden commercial opportunities, including new markets Reduce costs Attract, retain and motivate employees CSR, also known as corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, responsible business, sustainable responsible business, or corporate social performance, is a form of corporate self regulation. Integrated into a business model. Ideally, CSR policy would function as a built in, self regulating mechanism whereby business would monitor and ensure its adherence to law, ethical standards, and international norms. Business would embrace responsibility for the impact of their activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere. Further more, business would proactively promote the public interest by encouraging community growth and development in voluntarily eliminating practice that harms the public sphere , regardless of legality. Essentially , CSR is the deliberate inclusion of public interest into corporate decision making and the honoring of triple bottom line: people ,planet, and profit. Potential business benefits: The scale and the nature of benefits of CSR for an organisation can vary depending on the nature of the enterprises, and are difficult to adopt measures beyond financial ones. there is a found a correlation

between social or environmental performance and financial performance. However, business may not be looking at short run financial return when developing their CSR strategy. The definition of CSR use within an organisation can vary from the strict stakeholders impact definition used by many CSR advocates and will often include charitable efforts and volunteering. CSR may be based within the human resources, business development, public relations departments of an organisation, or may be given a separate unit reporting to the CEO or in some cases directly to the board. Some companies may implement CSR type values without a clearly defined team or programme. Human resources: A CSR programme can be an aid to recruitment and retention, particularly within the competitive graduate student markets. Potential recruits often asked about firms CSR policies during an interview, and having a comprehensive policy can give an advantage. CSR can also help improve a perception of a company among its staff, particularly when staff can become involve through pay roll giving, fund raising activities or community volunteering. Risk Management: Managing risk is a central part of many corporate strategies. Reputation that take decades to build up can be ruined in hours through incidents such as corruption scandals or environmental accidents. These can also draw unwanted attention from regulators, courts, governments and media. Building a genuine culture of doing the right thing within a corporation can offsets these rights. Brand Differentiation: In crowed market places, companies strive for a unique selling proposition that can separate them from the competition in the minds of consumers. CSR can play a role in building consumer loyalty based on distinctive ethical values. Several major brands, such as the co operative group, the body shop and American Apparel are built on ethical values. Business service organisations can benefit too from building reputation for integrity and best practice. License to operate: Corporations are keen to avoid interference in their business through taxation of regulations. By taking substantive voluntary steps, they can persuade governments and the wider public that they are taking issues such as health and safety, diversity, or the environment seriously as good corporate citizens with respect to labour standards and impacts on the environment. Criticisms and concerns: Critics of CSR as well as proponents debates a number of concerns related to it. These include CSRs relationship to the fundamental purpose and nature of business and the questionable motives for Engaging in CSR, including concern about insincerity and hypocrisy.

CSR and the nature of business: Only people can have social responsibility corporation are only responsible to their shareholders and not to society as a whole. Although they accept that corporation should obey the laws of the countries within which they work, they assert that corporations have no other obligation to society. A wide variety of individual and organisation operate in between these poles. More ever, many CSR proponents point out that CSR can significantly improve long term corporate profitability because it reduces risk and inefficiency by offering a host of potential benefits such as enhanced branmd reputation and employee engagement. Indian Scenario: Even much before the issue become a global concern, india was aware of corporate social responsibility (CSR) due to the efforts of organistaion such as the TATA group. (around 66 % of TATA Sons, the holding group of the TATA group is today owned by a trust) Corporate companies like ITC have made farmer development a vital part of its business strategies, and made major efforts to improve the livelihood standards of rural communities. Unilever is using micro enterprises to strategically augment the penetration of the consumers product in rural market. IT companies like TCS and Wipro have developed software to help teachers and childrens in schools across India to further the cause of education. The adult literacy software has been significant factor in reducing ill literacy in remote communication. Bank and insurances companies are targeting migrant labours and street vendors to help them through micro credits and related schemes. In june 2008, a survey was carried out by TNS India ( a research organization) and the Times foundation with the aim of providing an understanding of the role of corporation in CSR. The findings revealed that over 90% of all majors Indian organization surveyed were involved in CSR initiative. In fact, the private sector was more involved in CSR activities than the public and government sectors. The leading areas that corporations were involved in were livelihood, promotion, education, health, environment and womens empowerment. Most of CSR