CSR or Sustainability Reporting is a development of recent origin in India. Prior to this, social reporting was less than satisfactory. The law did not make social reporting mandatory. Voluntary social reporting persisted for a long time. There was callousness in reporting social consequences of business operations. Since liberalisation, the approach towards CSR has undergone a change. Corporate houses are viewing CSR as a mechanism to communicate with larger and dominant sections of the society, like local community, NGOs, social activists, Government, student wings, labour associations, consumer protection bodies, courts, print and electronic mass media, etc. The perceptible change in reporting is a value addition to the process of business value generation. The enlightened capital market reckons the social performance measures or indices to gauge the social value system and justifies the corporate valuations.
In view of these significant developments in India since liberalisation, a need is felt by the researchers to analyse the social reporting practices of the majority of large and listed corporate bodies in India. The post-liberalisation studies on social reporting are narrow in their approaches and attempt at diagnosing the reporting practices of Indian large listed companies. The reporting practices vary across several companies with standalone reports on sustainability to be part of annual reporting or chairman's reports. The websites of companies have also become a place for social reporting. Does social reporting context vary across companies? What is the board's involvement in CSR? Does size and composition matter? How does profitability, nature, size, age, listing status, ownership pattern, domicile status of auditor play a role in social reporting norms? Which methods of reporting are being employed by Indian companies - GRI, GC, Accountability Assurance Standard, etc.
This book is based on a study that examines some of these queries with respect to Indian companies. The study aims to achieve the following objectives:
1. To analyse trend and progress in social reporting practices in India in general and among sample companies in particular.
2. To examine the impact of provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 on social reporting behaviour of sample companies in India.
3. To examine the influence of international reporting framework on social reporting practices of sample companies in India.
4. To study causes for variations in social reporting practices of the sample companies.
5. To analyse the relation between governance characteristics and corporate social reporting practices of sample companies in India.