Reporting of CSR Activities in India: Are We Still at a Nascent Stage Even After the Legal Mandate?

Abstract

In this paper we have attempted to study Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting made by select companies in their official websites, Sustainability Reports and Annual Reports for a period of 5 financial years (FY) from 2009–2010 to 2013–2014 i.e. during the pre and mandate onset period, by conducting an empirical and analytical study. Data was then generated from such an analysis using longitudinal Qualitative Document Analysis to show trends as well as absolute CSR levels of Indian companies for the aforesaid 5 year period. “Number of sentences” was used as a unit of measurement to calculate the extent of information reported. It was noted that companies were more prone towards reporting of CSR activities in their official websites than Annual Reports. Infact, the reporting of CSR information was not satisfactory in case of Annual Reports both in the pre and mandate onset period. Besides, the important sections of the Annual Reports like “Chairman/CEO message,” “Managing Director’s message” and “Letter to the Shareholders,” still do not lay emphasis on reporting of CSR as compared to financial information. However, although, there was an increase in the proportion of companies publishing Sustainability Reports from 2009–2010 to 2013–2014, but still there were companies without Sustainability Reports too. The average sentences reported in the Sustainability Reports was observed to be highly inconsistent both in the pre and mandate onset period.