Integrating Social Responsibility of University and Corporate Sector for Inclusive Growth in India

Abstract

Globalization has made the market in India very competitive. The lower segment of the workforce is under tremendous pressure to improve their productivity to sustain in the market. Being one of the important stakeholders, universities can play a very significant role in transferring knowledge created by them under their social responsibility. The article discusses that even though most of the universities are not explicit about their social responsibility, they are interacting with community through their students and faculty as part of course work or voluntary co-curricular activity. However, funding is always an issue and only those initiatives have proved to be sustainable which have collaborated with some other organization. Recently, by revising the company’s law, the Government of India has made it mandatory for high-earning companies to spend at least 2 per cent of their average net profit for the immediate preceding three financial years on corporate social responsibility (CSR), and the study reveals that education is one of the preferred channels for CSR in India. If corporate sector shares its CSR contribution with the university social responsibility for knowledge creation and its dissemination, it will have a lasting impact.