CSR in Higher Education

IAS Parliament Daily Current Affairs Articles - A Shankar IAS Academy Initiative
What is the issue?

•Companies Act, 2013 initiated mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) to transform
the business-society relationship.

•But the results so far have not been encouraging, particularly in the higher education sector.
What is the issue? The United States has
How is CSR performance?
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•Around 5,000 companies
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•Among them, only around 3,000 companies had made some contribution towards CSR
expenditure.

•Companies had spent around 75% of the prescribed CSR expenditure and most of it to the
Prime Minister’s Relief Fund.

IAS, IPS, IFS and 130+ officers as our visiting faculty

What are the concerns?

•Companies - CSR offers scope for corporations to play a leadership role in contributing to
society.

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•Higher education androle of the council
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significantly more attention under the
CSR framework.

•Government - There is lack of coordination between the Ministry of Human Resource

Development and the MCA.

•MHRD should provide for a road map that incentivises CSR funding to be made available
for universities.

IAS, IPS, IFS and 130+ officers as our visiting faculty

How could CSR contribute to higher education?

•Need - Government has initiated five major reforms in regulation, accreditation, rankings,
autonomy and internationalisation.

•However, building world-class universities and upgrading existing ones require funding.

•Measures - Some of the measures as recommended by an earlier committee include:

1.provision of free land

2.deduction in taxable income to companies for contributions towards boosting higher

education

3.10-year multiple entry visas for foreign research scholars

4.Rs.1,000 crore scholarship fund (with tax exemption for corporate sector contributions)

•However, these recommendations were not implemented.

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What is the way forward?

•There is an urgent need for policy intervention in the higher education sector.

•A thorough re-examination of budgetary resources for higher education is essential.

•This should include aspects of loans, grants and philanthropy in higher education sector.

•Universities and related funding should be designated a priority sector to encourage banks to
offer credit.

•Particularly, leadership in philanthropy is central to enabling an institutional vision.

•Corporate Social Responsibility could provide a larger scope in this regard.

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