Indian Standards for Corporate Social Participation Disclosure Index-Analysis of IT Companies in India

Abstract

This paper attempts to derive a comprehensive Corporate Social Participation Disclosure (CSPD) index by analysing top 100 Information technology(IT) and IT enabled services companies hereafter known as IT companies in India listed by NASSCOM. These companies were used as sample for the study. This index is set as benchmark of Indian standards developed as per guidelines of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, India. The social disclosure by the corporate revolve around 8 independent themes viz., care for stakeholders, ethical functioning, respect for workers’ right, respect for human rights, respect for environment, activities of social and inclusive development, implementation process and lastly financial allocation. Developing such index is important to decide on the relevance of disclosure practices of corporates which facilitate dissemination of vital information to investor and public at large. Therefore it aids legitimate communication. The companies were categorized as India centric MNC (IC) and Foreign Centric MNC (FC). Based on the score on the CSPD guidelines, the hundred companies were classified as low, medium and high groups of CSR level. Chi square test revealed that the categories of companies are independent of the themes of CSPD. India centric corporations have better CSPD score than foreign centric corporations. The aggregate mean value of ‘social inclusive activities’ shows the maximum of 0.86 and the ‘financial allocation’ theme shows the lowest mean of 0.03. The hypothesis on the significance of relationship of India centric MNCs and Foreign centric MNCs on the CSPD index is analysed.