Fiinovation okhla: role of csr in education sector

 

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained an increasingly high profile in recent years. CSR can be defined as the ways in which a business seeks to align its values and behaviour with those of its various stakeholders. The stakeholders of the business include the employees, customers, suppliers, government, interest groups (such as environmental groups) and wider societal interests on whom the operations of the business may have an impact. There are various sector, where we can perform CSR activities, such as Health care and sanitation, Education and skill development, rural development, environment and ecology, gender equality, PM’s relief funds, National Heritage, Art, Culture, Sports Development, Eradication of hunger and poverty, women empowerment, Social business projects, Combating HIV/AIDS, Maternal and other diseases, improving maternal health, etc. There are top three sectors which are too popular such as education, healthcare and rural development. These three sectors received 50% of the total CSR and the remaining half is spread over 25 other sectors.

Fiinovation CEO and Chairman - Centre for CSR & Sustainability Excellence, Dr Soumitro Chakraborty firm Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd.(Fiinovation) working on Education, Health, Environment, livelihood and skills (Fiinovation practice areas) and provides its corporate social responsibility services to both corporations and civil society organizations (CSOs). According to him, they provide services such as field research studies, forging alliances, designing CSR policy to corporations, there are 60% corporations who perform CSR activities in education sectors and CSOs who are working in the education sector. Every year, fiinovation funding provides funding to the CSOs, and some of them CSOs 60% are working in the education sector. They have performed many fiinovation projects. In their eleven years of span, they did lots of projects related to education sector, such as Impact Assessment of Mobile Science Labs for a Leading Pharmaceutical Company, Impact Assessment of Digital Discovery Paathshala Project in Delhi, Mid-term Assessment for Skill Training Institute in Barmer, Rajasthan, Programme Management for a Community Level Programme in Bilaspur, and many more. We can see their clients happy reviews on fiinovation reviews. We can get more details on fiinovation linkedin, fiinovation twitter, where they always update their innovation.

Education is the most popular choice of sector for Corporate Social responsibility projects, who received 25% of the total CSR and the remaining half is divided into Healthcare and Rural Development (mean you can say, Education Sector- 25%, Healthcare sector- 15% and Rural development sector- 15% ). Education sector is more popular than other sectors because the role of educational institutions to surpass the CSR for creating the best human capital and also explores the significance of CSR for promoting education and various initiatives of companies in the education sector as a corporate responsibility to expand education. According to Ms. Pooja deshmukh, Associate Professor and Research Coordinator, MGM Institute of Management, Aurangabad, India. She described three core models for education sector, which is helpful for putting CSR strategies that are follows:

“The core strategy in all three models involves the following steps:

• Identification of the area of intervention/involvement and the scope of work

• Identification of the beneficiaries[Demographic Profile – location, sex, category, age, type of school supported)

• Identification of the sources of fund to create a sustainable model (internal, external, donor engagement model)

• Designing of an appropriate/dedicated team with the right organizational structure to run the initiative [Finalize organizational structure, Recruit key personnel, Recruit Local people/volunteers]

• Identification of Key Stakeholders for the programs • Formulation of a strategic plan for the initiative [Defining objectives, Resource Mapping, Awareness Programmers, Trainings for internal/external/NGO members]

• Mechanism for Monitoring & Tracking Success [Financial Monitoring, Identification of KPOs, Impact Assessment at regular intervals, Internal Mechanisms to measure/report utilization of funds to the donors, Mechanisms/frequency of reporting to the donors involved, mechanisms for taking feedback from donors, Identification of templates/tools to be used to record report on initiatives]

• Ensuring sustainability and replicability of model”

The role of CSR in education is thus mitigating the skills gap with considerable experimentation, and learning-by-doing along the way. In this process, the affected individuals, companies, and society at large are likely to benefit.

We can contact Fiinovation,



Fiinovation okhla address: 24/30, Ground Floor, Okhla Industrial Estate, Phase III New Delhi – 110020, Delhi, India.

Fiinovation Blogs: How to improve financial performance Measures for 2020

 

Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd (Fiinovation), is a leading research and advisory firm that offers expertise in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability domain. According to Fiinovation, financial performance is very important because understanding essential financial performance is the first step that leads you to where you are. Fiinovation family working on many solutions are Analytics, grant management, programme management, proposal research laboratory, and project optimization. The primary focus of fiinovation practice areas is health, education, livelihood skills, and environment. Fiinovation believes that mentioned CSR trends are more impactful for 2020. For this, key performance indicators are also important to reach the particular target but not all KPI’s are suitable for the firm, there are some few KPIs used for business. It depends on firm strategies on how to make use of KPIs. To determine this, you should consider where your business currently stands and its future strategy (i.e. have you created products yet? Are you expanding? Downsizing? etc.). Then, you’ll want to make sure that you have both leading and lagging indicators to measure performance. Fiinovation CEO Dr. Soumitro Chakraborty and his team are working for new upcoming projects and are also honoured with many awards for their work. You can see reviews on Fiinovation glassdoor. 

Financial performance is defined as, “Financial performance is a subjective measure of how well a firm can use assets from its primary mode of business and generate revenues. The term is also used as a general measure of a firm's overall financial health over a given period.” There are many ways to understand the financial measures, but before understanding financial measures let's understand KPIs. KPI stands for Key performance indicator, there are several methods included in KPIs such as operating cash flow, debt to equity ratio, current ratio, days sales outstanding, working capital, accounts payable turnover, accounts receivable turnover, inventory turnover, return on equity, and customer satisfaction. A key performance indicator is a measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a company is achieving key business objectives. Organizations use KPIs at multiple levels to evaluate their success at reaching targets. High-level KPIs may focus on the overall performance of the business, while low-level KPIs may focus on processes in departments such as sales, marketing, HR, support and others.

According to solvexia, Some KPIs for financial performance,

1. Operating Cash Flow: Knowing how much cash you have on hand lets you know that you can pay for operating expenses and incoming inventory. Beyond how your business is functioning today, you can use operating cash flow in comparison to capital investments to see how you can move your business forward. 

2. Current Ratio: This is the ratio between your assets over your liabilities. It allows you to understand solvency and ensure that you have a good enough credit rating to expand. 

3. Debt to Equity Ratio: Your business has likely relied on investors and shareholders with a stake in your overall financial health. To make sure that you can protect their investment, you want to regularly check in with your total liabilities against your shareholder’s equity. To remain transparent and be held accountable, it’s a KPI that your shareholders will want to stay abreast of. Automation technology makes it easy to share reports with all those who need to see them automatically.

4. Days Sales Outstanding: DSO defines the average sales collection period. This KPI is not only useful to you as CFO, but your whole team can also use it to understand how to incentivise people to pay faster. Your marketing and sales team should be aware of this KPI always, especially when introducing new campaigns. This is why it’s essential to have accessible dashboards, so every team member can pull insights they need for their own decisions that will affect the business’ bottom line. 

5. Working Capital: If you subtract your current liabilities from your existing assets, you have your working capital. This will let you know if you have what you need to take care of short-term liabilities. 

6. Accounts Payable Turnover: Your cash flow is affected by when and how many times you pay vendors. This is known as your accounts payable turnover. 

7. Accounts Receivable Turnover: Going hand-in-hand with accounts payable turnover is accounts receivable turnover, or how often you collect money that is owed. It may be the case that you are running into issues raising money, and that will affect your cash flow. To better understand if your business process is right or if you may need business process improvement, you should regularly monitor this situation with the help of automated means.

8.Customer Satisfaction: The KPI of customer satisfaction can be gleaned by calculating customer responses from surveys. 

9. Inventory Turnover: By dividing your current average sales by your current average inventory in the same period, you get an idea of your inventory turnover. You don’t want to hold too much inventory as a liability, nor do you want to be short to satiate consumer demand. 

10. Return on Equity: Comparing your net income to each unit of shareholder equity lets you understand whether or not your net income is appropriate for your business’ size. Not only does it inform you about profitability, but it also gives insight into how efficient you’re financially managing the business. 

We can contact Fiinovation through their social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin as they keep transparency about their work.

Following are the Links:

Fiinovation Facebook

Fiinovation Twitter

Fiinovation Linkedin

Fiinovation Delhi NGO address: 24/30, Ground Floor, Okhla Industrial Estate, Phase III New Delhi – 110020, Delhi, India

Fiinovation CSR - Top 5 Corporate Social Responsibility 2020

 

In 2019, Corporate social responsibility trends are too different as compared to CSR trends 2020. CSR trends in 2019 are better dialogue, more learning, more disaster prevention, greater equity and the growing importance of Generation Z-ers. These CSR concepts easily held media attention and the trends that were ideally impactful. We all know that CSR trends should be strategic because more strategic the more impactful. In 2020, Corporations or organization's provide big financial donations for social work. Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. (Fiinovation) is a global consulting company operating in multiple disciplines of the social development sector with emphasis on CSR and Sustainability. According to fiinovation, in this year lots of fiinovation CSR activities are performed by corporations and organizations such as Sandvik Asia, SMS India pvt, Admitad India who provided relief funds to the affected areas with fiinovation. They were present with fiinovation to provide a relief fund. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world in many ways. Due to COVID- 19 pandemic, several countries across the world have declared lockdown. Due to lockdown billions of people who are now sitting at home, and lots of businesses who are shutting down and ceasing almost all economic activity.

Here are top 5 Corporate social responsibility trends,

1. Sustainable Development Goals
2. Synergistic Approach
3. Measurement
4. Corporate Activism
5. Employee Volunteer Programs

Fiinovation provides its services to both corporations and civil society organizations (CSOs) in carrying out field research studies, forging alliances, designing CSR policy of corporations. The primary focus of fiinovation practice areas is health, education, livelihood skills, and environment. Fiinovation believes that mentioned CSR trends are more impactful for 2020. Fiinovation CSR activities are appreciated by many corporates and the Fiinovation news about their latest projects is also covered by well-known media channels like ANI News and economic times. Fiinovation family bridges the gap between the NGO and the companies and gives proper guidance to invest in the CSR activities which will benefit the society.

Sustainable Development Goals: Sustainable development goals include ending poverty and hunger,providing global access to quality education, promoting health and well-being, taking climate action, reducing inequalities, building public-private partnerships to reach these goals. The main focus of leaders in related to SDGs is in order to achieve goals is “action and delivery for sustainable development and pledged to mobilize financing, enhance national implementation and strengthen institutions”.

Synergistic Approach: In 2020, companies are always focusing on CSR strategies that are helpful in their business perspective with solving relevant social problems at scale. Companies are always looking for opportunities to contribute to society. Synergistic approach is helpful to boost both social impact and stock market performance.

Measurement: According to the Michelle DiSabato, Impact Advisory Services at Blackbaud, “As I look ahead to the next few years, I see companies’ adoption of impact measurement and the SDGs as becoming more and more critical.Those companies that ignore this call to action and continue to not integrate their CSR activities as a core function of their business will see themselves left behind.”

Corporate Activism: Corporate activism always increases the hiring activism, employee loyalty, and long-term sales.

Employee Volunteer Programs: Company-organized employee volunteer opportunities continue to be an under-tapped opportunity and, thus, we will see this 2019 CSR trend continue into 2020 as more businesses adopt this practice. Not only can employee volunteer programs make a massive, positive impact on a company’s corporate social responsibility programs, brand image, and recruitment/retention, but companies are treating these initiatives also as team-building activities. In addition to improving morale and culture, there is an opportunity to encourage cross-departmental collaboration and relationships by placing employees from different teams together on these volunteer days.

Fiinovation CEO Dr. Soumitro Chakraborty and his team are working for new upcoming projects and are also honoured with many awards for their work.We can contact Fiinovation through their social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin as they keep transparency about their work.

Following are the Links:

Fiinovation Facebook

Fiinovation Twitter

Fiinovation Linkedin

Fiinovation Delhi NGO address: 24/30, Ground Floor, Okhla Industrial Estate, Phase III New Delhi – 110020, Delhi, India

Fiinovation CSR - Opportunities and threats of corporate social responsibility in India

 

In this modern era, Consumer is the king. Every company is incomplete without consumer, employees, stakeholders, society, suppliers, distributors etc. The company’s success and survival are in the hands of consumers.  If the companies will do well for the society, environment, government, stakeholders, consumers and suppliers, etc. then only it will be able to achieve its goals otherwise it will not survive for long. Nowadays, companies are taking initiatives for the CSR activities and they know their responsibilities and duties and they are also trying to contribute more and more for them. CSR has come a long way in India.  India is the first country to legally mandate corporate social responsibility. CSR is divided into three theories such as utilitarian theory, managerial theory and relational theory. The utilitarian theory explains social cost and idea for functionalism and neo-functionalism, the managerial theory explains political approaches, globalization pressure, and domestic political structures, and the relational theory explains the related environment. Fiinovation aims “To ensure that development is not only sustainable and simplistic, but accessible as well”. Fiinovation practices include health, education, livelihood, and environmental skills.

Corporate social responsibility is the positive activity which is performed by any company, business or organization that affects the employees, society, local authorities, environment and economy positively. Fiinovation CSR is related to making sustainable development, improvement of human society, local community and contribution in the eradication of social evils and by not forgetting the rules and regulations and law. There are many companies who are engaging themselves in this activity at higher levels and contributing to society, utilizing and managing in a better way. CSR programs can be related to education, environment, health care, infrastructure, protection and technology awareness etc. There are three main concepts where companies usually focused on are human resource management, environmental management and social distribution. Human resource management consists of providing a safe and friendly working environment to customers, suppliers and employees, to value corporate culture, to ensure maximum satisfaction to customers, and to provide an authoritative explanation. The social contribution consists of providing welfare of the society, contribution to local communities and authorities, good corporate citizenship, and assisting for reconstruction after a disaster Fiinovation projects. Environmental management consists of providing efforts to achieve low carbon society, recycling of wastes and scrap Bio-conservation activity, make use of efficient energy tools etc.

 The corporate world realized that today’s scenario of globalization needs CSR and without the presence of CSR, company’s can’t compete effectively and efficiently in the market. CSR strategies are helpful for future decisions related to investments,  competing with MNCs, increasing international relationships, enhancing creditworthiness, reputation, recognition and building a brand image, etc. Fiinovation CSR helps to create lots of opportunities for companies or businesses, such as better visibility of the business in all areas, the better impact of the brand image of the business house on the minds of customers, deep understanding of mutual dependency and highest potential of mutual benefits. Sometimes CSR creates the risk such as, we all know India is the first country to legally mandate CSR that makes CSR spending compulsory as a percentage of their annual profit and for these rules and regulations are strict. Some companies still may be using old CSR language, not keeping up with new buzzwords. Business operations can be slowed by the internal bureaucracy created by CSR. Core competencies and less photogenic operations can be ignored.

Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. (Fiinovation) is a global consulting company operating in multiple disciplines of the social development sector with an emphasis on CSR and Sustainability. Fiinovation was established in 2008, by Dr. Soumitro Chakraborty. It basically focuses on social problems such as age, gender, equality, livelihood for women,  waste management, rain harvesting, open defecation, disaster management, rural tourism,  impact on health, manual scavenging, affirmative action, antenatal care, agriculture development,  etc. Fiinovation projects have mentioned all their projects based on social problems. Fiinovation’s main specialities are CSR-CSO Partnership, Initiative Design & Management, Monitoring & Evaluation- Need Assessment, Baseline, Mid-line, Endline Study & Impact Assessments, CSR Policy Design, CSR Livelihood, Skill Development, Education, Health,  Environment Projects & Initiatives. Simplicity, transparency, and quality are three morals shown in every Fiinovation project. Fiinovation CEO  Dr. Soumitro Chakraborty and team are honoured by many awards in the field of Health, Education, Environment and Livelihood with a focus on CSR & Sustainability.  Many corporates, organizations and NGOs have appreciated Fiinovation CSR activity projects and are also covered by well-known media channels too.  Corporate social responsibility activities are mentioned in Fiinovation Blogs that explains how solving social problems is their first responsibility. 

We can contact Fiinovation through their social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin as they keep transparency about their work.

Following are the Links:

Fiinovation Facebook

Fiinovation Twitter

Fiinovation Linkedin

Fiinovation Delhi NGO address: 24/30, Ground Floor, Okhla Industrial Estate, Phase III New Delhi – 110020, Delhi, India

CSR for Covid-19

“ The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in service of others”

- Mahatma Gandhi

Crises are not pre-planned, it can happen anytime anywhere so it is very important to handle the crisis at the right time before it wrecks everything. As the whole world is suffering from the pandemic of Covid-19 the economy is badly affected and it becomes difficult for the government to handle every situation due to lack of funds. Thus many Corporates step forward for a helping hand towards society as their CSR activity. For these companies require proper guidance and consulting about how they can serve society during the Outbreak of Covid-19.


Innovation Financial Advisors Pvt Ltd (Fiinovation) is a leading research and advisory firm that offers expertise in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability domain. Fiinovation Projects are appreciated by many companies as their investment in Fiinovation CSR activities brings effective results. SMS India had made a partnership with Fiinovation for Covid-19 Project in Odisha.


Following are the details of Covid-19 Relief Project:

To reach as many unprivileged people in Odisha to provide food facilities

To conduct an awareness session on hygiene and social distancing

Providing dry rations and hygiene essentials to poor and needy families.

The project will be implemented in Khordah district in Odisha and aims to benefit 2500 households in that area.

Fiinovation CEO Dr Soumitro Chakraborty and team are tirelessly working to make this project successful and also to implement it in different parts of the country. Fiinovation is honoured with Most Caring Company Award World CSR Congress, Mumbai-2015 and also appreciated by around the world.

How Businesses can help during Covid-19?

During this pandemic, everyone is working from home as many businesses are affected including Hotels, Airlines and various manufacturing plants are closed due to this lot of people are on the urge to lose their jobs because of low Income.

Companies are deducting some percent of salaries from their employees due to less profit and to contribute towards Covid-19 relief programs.

They can arrange food and medical facilities for needy people.

To Implement CSR activities so that their Investment will add value in society.

Promoting Covid-19 awareness campaign

Providing transport facilities for goods and services

In this lockdown situation, the government and corporates work hand in hand to serve the society with various CSR activities, For this many reputed companies like Tata, Wipro etc are now contributing to fulfilling the needs for food and healthcare services for the society.
Fiinovation partners with different companies to serve the society as their ongoing Covid-19 Relief project to benefit 2500 households in Khordah District by delivering food & hygiene facilities and also to spread awareness about the safety measures during Covid-19.

Fiinovation believes in transparency as we can also track the progress of the project through their social media sites like Facebook, Twitter & Linkedin. Companies can also contact Fiinovation for their CSR activities as Fiinovation Projects are well recognized by society.

Contact through links: Fiinovation Twitter

Fiinovation Youtube

Fiinovation Delhi NGO address: 24/30, Ground Floor, Okhla Industrial Estate, Phase - III, New Delhi - 110020, Delhi, India

Waste Management through CSR

The Increase in population results in an increase in customers, to satisfy the wants of the customers the company produces an end number of products.

This results in expansion of companies, market competition, Innovation of new products, increase in purchases, but in this scenario, the companies ignore the harmful effect they cause on the environment.

A large amount of waste is generated as the consumer uses more products which become difficult to dispose of. Purchase of products for daily need is a continuous process and many products are made of plastic and other non-degradable materials hence it creates a problem in disposal.

Findings :

As per the research, about 2.01 billion metric tons of solid waste is generated annually and the world bank estimates overall waste generation will increase till 3.40 billion metric tons by 2050.

Countries like the United States of America, Canada are likely to generate 34% of the world's waste.

Mostly the waste is generated from industries like Manufacturing & Fashion. Manufacturing industries use plastic, metals and other electronic materials which cause hazardous waste which creates air, water and soil pollution.

As per the source, the average customer throws 31.75 kilograms of clothing per year and globally produces 13billion tons of textile waste. Around 57 % of the discarded clothing ends up in landfill and 18 % is reused and recycled.

How Companies Can Do CSR on Waste Management?

Many companies are focusing on their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities in waste management. They can use the method of three R’s which is classified as Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It will help to cut down the amount of waste generated by using alternatives for non-degradable products, to make the products reusable and recyclable. Using recyclable materials for making a product will be the best decision a company can make in their waste management activity. As the process of production and consumption is continuous in nature another fourth R ‘Repeat’ can be added in this hierarchy. Hence the companies can follow the process of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repeat to safeguard the environment as their Corporate Social Responsibility.

Reputed companies like Samsung, Nestle & Tata have started waste management as their CSR activities. Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt Ltd (Fiinovation) took the initiative to guide and provide solutions to companies for their CSR activities. Fiinovation is working on different projects in different parts of the country and these Fiinovation Projects are appreciated by many companies as their investment in Fiinovation CSR activities brings effective results. CSR and sustainability excellence (CCSE) is Fiinovation’s Non Profit foundation who strive to uplift individuals and communities by working in education, health, sports, livelihood and other areas of relevance. Recently Leading Automotive Tyre manufacturer and HFCL made a partnership with Fiinovation for their projects. Fiinovation news about different projects is covered by media channels like ANI News & Economic Times to maintain transparency of their work and to Educate the corporates about their CSR activities Fiinovation believes in Simplicity, Transparency and Quality which make it stand out of the crowd and trusted by many Organizations. To know more about ongoing project companies can contact Fiinovation through their social media channels like Facebook and Linkedin.

Contact through the Links: Fiinovation Facebook

Fiinovation Linkedin

Fiinovation CEO: Dr Soumitro Chakraborty, Chief Executive Officer of Innovation Financial Advisors Pvt Ltd (Fiinovation) is honoured with CSR Leadership Award 2017 for his contribution in CSR and sustainability and for Best Environment Friendly Project.

Fiinovation Delhi NGO address: 24/30, Ground Floor, Okhla Industrial Estate, Phase-III, New Delhi - 110020, Delhi, India.

CSR expenditure is on the rise across India's business environment

Five years after corporate social responsibility (CSR) was mandated by the government, Big Four accounting and advisory firm KPMG has found that India’s largest companies are almost entirely compliant with the new regulations. 98 % of companies surveyed by the firm had their policies available in the public domain.

CSR was mandated by the government in 2013 under Section 135 of the Companies Act, a legislation that cam with a number of stipulations for businesses that fall under the label of ‘large companies.’ KPMG defines these as the 100 listed companies in India with the largest market capitalisation, or the N100.

A major stipulation, and one that has received a considerable amount of attention, is that large companies must earmark 2% of their annual profits towards CSR activity. The legislation comes with some leeqay, in that companies that haven’t devoted the necessary funds have space to justify their actions.

Other stipulations include setting up a CSR committee at the board level that will devise a CSR policy, making the policy available in the public domain, enumerating the areas of intervention that come within this policy, disclosing the mode of implementation, and revealing the methods to monitor CSR activity, among a wide range of others.

Since CSR was mandated, KPMG has checked in regularly with the N100 to gauge the state of compliance vis-à-vis the relatively new regulatory framework. This year, the firm’s evaluation produced promising results, showing an overall improvement in compliance across the board.

For instance, KPMG reports that there has been a 325% increase in the number of companies that have revealed details of their outreach effort in their annual financial statements. The amount of companies meeting their 2% per year quota is also on the rise, currently up to 76%.

This scenario is reflected in stories emerging throughout the year of social and developmental projects undertaken by large firms. The consulting sector is an integral part of this landscape. PwC, for instance, supports a number of social initiatives through its PwC India Foundation, including rehabilitation efforts in the wake of natural disasters.

Global management consultancy Accenture, meanwhile, has been involved in education efforts across the country. KPMG itself earmarked as much as Rs.2 crore towards helping those affected in the Kerala floods in 2018, in addition to deploying employee hours towards pro bono relief efforts.

Overall, KPMG reports that the N100 have spent more than Rs.35,000 on CSR-related projects in the last five years, accompanied by a 150% increase over the same period in the number of companies that carry the unspent portion of the annual 2% forwards into the next year.

With a long-term perspective, many large companies are looking to align their CSR activities with priorities within India and across the globe. As many as 41% of the N100 have now focused their CSR projects within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework laid out by the United Nations.

Within the Indian context, a large share of the focus has been on projects to reduce inequality. Strikingly, KPGM reports that companies where women are chairpersons of the CSR committee have had the most dramatic increase in spending on reducing social inequality.

Article is taken from - https://www.consultancy.in/news/2838/csr-expenditure-is-on-the-rise-across-indias-business-environment

Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. (Fiinovation) is a global consulting firm operating in multiple disciplines of the social development sector with emphasis on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability. Fiinovation offers end to end CSR consulting services and simplified solutions that has helped various corporations channelize their resources for the upliftment of community on societal, economic and ecological aspects in accordance to their CSR charter. Since 2008, Fiinovation has grown phenomenally and has made a benchmark in the sector through its service quality. It has been able to bridge the gap between businesses and communities through value-based CSR programmes in association with credible civil society organizations on pan India basis in the field of health, environment, education, and livelihood

Fiinovation CEO : Dr Soumitro Chakraborty, Chief Executive Officer of Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. (Fiinovation), was conferred with ‘CEO of the year’ award at the 8th World CSR Congress held in Mumbai on February 18.

The World CSR Congress this year focused on the integration of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in corporate strategies, innovation, and strategic alliances. The award recognizes fiinovation projects exemplary work in the social development sector and noteworthy CSR and sustainability programmes.

Fiinovation Delhi NGO address - 24/30, Ground Floor, Okhla Industrial Estate Phase 3 Rd, New Delhi, Delhi 110020

Is corporate social responsibility a one-time activity for your company?

If the answer is ‘yes’, you’re missing out an opportunity to increase goodwill for your brand and attract new customers for your business.

Social responsibility has witnessed an increased importance among companies over the last few years. As per a recent PWC Global CEO Survey, 64% of CEOs now consider CSR as an integral part of their business strategy. Whether it's by empowering women, helping the environment, or trying to end poverty, more and more companies are incorporating social responsibility into their overall business strategy. There are many reasons why a company might engage in social responsibility, few of them are outlined below for ready reference.

Improves Company’s Brand Image

The public perception of a company is vital for customers and shareholders. Being socially responsible bolster a company’s image and builds its brand image. By being active in community, a company projects a positive image for not only being profitable but for also being socially aware.

Expands Customer Base

Having a social responsibility policy strengthens & impacts the buying decisions of customers. Building relationships with customers is the cornerstone for any business. For example - a bank that offers loans to marginalized section of the society, will be viewed positively by the community and it might boost the sales for the company.

Creates A Differential

When corporates are involved with the community, it generates a trust among the community for them and a differential is created making the company stand out. For example, Tesla Inc. reduced the gap between the corporate world and social responsibility by offering electric-powered cars and products that are environment friendly.

Coca-Cola in 2010, started by 20 initiative to empower 5 million women entrepreneurs across the company’s value chain by 2020.

In a nutshell, both company and community benefit from CSR initiatives. India is a country which with its inequalities, operate in first, second and third world simultaneously. The government is obviously doing its share but organizations have a larger responsibility because their success depends on the society they operate in. The CSR and sustainability strategy should be drawn in congruence with the company's business goals.

CSR can only be driven when people working at the ground level recognize it and the community that is targeted accepts it.

Fiinovation works towards empowering youth through skill development and education.

A leading private sector health insurance company in India entered into a strategic partnership with Fiinovation Pvt. ltd, a global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) consulting firm, and Pinnacle Skills India, an NGO that works towards empowering youth through skill development and education.

The programme's key objective is to provide skill development opportunities to women from financially disadvantaged communities in 36 districts across 8 states of India. Under this collaboration, Fiinovation and Pinnacle Skills will extend their services to facilitate the corporation's social welfare project for training the youth to take up the roles of General Duty Assistants (GDA).

The project's mandate includes community mobilisation through awareness activities, setting-up training centres for skill development, and ensuring employment opportunities. The complete CSR portfolio will be managed and monitored by Fiinovation team. Pinnacle Skills India took the responsibility to arrange for 'On-Job Training' of the beneficiaries, in hospitals, and multi-speciality clinics.

Upon completion of the training, the beneficiaries will be duly assessed and issued certificates by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Sector Skill Council and provided with job placements as GDAs.

Speaking on the launch, Dr. Soumitro Chakraborty, CEO of Fiinovation stressed on the need and importance of women empowerment and their skill development. He stated, "There is a serious decline in women workforce participation due to lack of opportunities, safety and other social stigmas. We want to contribute towards making a social and economic change."
"Percentage of working women has declined over time. With 36% of women being employed in 2005-06, the number has decreased to 24% in 2015-16. This decline must be a major concern for economy and society at large. Owing to the high gender inequality at the workplace, there is an urgent need that calls for an overhaul. It goes without saying that we need to shift focus towards education, skill development and employment opportunities for women, more aggressively than before.

6 criteria to be considered to select an effective CSR consulting firm from a list of CSR Consultants in India.

According to the Companies Act which came into effect in 2013, companies with a net worth of Rs 500 crore on revenue of Rs 10,000 or net profit of Rs 5 crore on revenue of Rs 10,000 or net profit of Rs 5 crore should spend 2% of their average profit in the last three years on social development such as health and sanitation, poverty alleviation, among others listed in Schedule VII of the rules.

With the implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India, not much has been changed in patterns of spending by the top 100 National Stock Exchange (NSE) listed companies. While the education and healthcare sector has been rapidly attracting eyeballs of CSR Funding, Maharastra still sees the maximum inflow of CSR spends. The top listed companies still account for almost half of the total CSR Spends.

In the recent years, India inc. has increased its CSR spending in 2017-18 to Rs 9,034 crore, including activities such as the promotion of education, vocational skill development, environmental sustainability and development of slum seeing an increase in expenditure. Notably, CSR expenditure by the companies towards poverty alleviation and promotion of healthcare and sanitation has witnessed a drop in 2016-17, as the total spends on the activity fell to Rs 549 crore or 18.6% from 2,944 crores in 2015-16 to Rs 2,394 crore in 2016-17 according to a report published at The Indian Express.

According to a report from PRIME Database, the CSR Spending statistics of India states that while 1,091 listed companies spent amount to the tune of Rs 9,034 crore towards CSR in FY17, implying that Indian corporates under CSR expenditures are giving more priority on education and vocational skills. 2016-17 witnessed a Rs 591 crore rise in CSR spends from Rs 2,793 crore in FY16 to Rs 3,384 crore in FY17. Education and vocational skills account for 37% of the total CSR spend by the Indian Corporates.  

Based on the CSR strategy of Corporates, other sectors that have seen a significant increase from education and skill development sector is the expenditure towards benefiting the armed forces veterans, war widows, and their dependents have registered the biggest increase in percentage terms. The spend has almost seen a jump of three times from Rs 24.5 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 73 crore in 2016-17.

According to report, the CSR spend growth towards armed forces veterans and dependents of martyrs is in accordance with the Government’s decision in November 2016 to double the compensation for widows and families of soldiers. Apart from these sectors, community development, infrastructure, social welfare, sports and slum development have also registered a significant increase in CSR spends.

As the companies have implanted Corporate Social Responsibility into their businesses, the value of working with CSR consultant is not always clear. In many cases, Corporates interested in CSR and are looking to attain sustainable goals, don’t feel the need to hire CSR consultants from outside. For them merely conducting an employee engagement activity will suffice the cause.  However, there are some exceptions to CSR activities conducted for social development, as these include areas such as social audits of supply chains, environmental impact assessments, and measurement of social outcomes where third-party verification/assurance is appropriate and necessary. Overall, the objective should be to build internal CSR capacity wherever possible.

As there is a rapid rise in the CSR initiatives in India, finding suitable CSR consultants is equally not possible. There’s now so much choice that Corporates while searching for a perfect CSR consultancy have a hard time selecting the right CSR advisor.  

However, a checklist for Corporates to keep in mind while selecting that right CSR consultant will definitely help to understand and conduct the best CSR activities in India. Here are the six criteria that are important.

1. Work experience: One important aspect to keep in mind while selecting a CSR consultancy is the past record and work experience of the company. Have they worked for corporations and not-for-profit organizations? What kind of businesses have they worked with? A clear understanding of these is important while selecting the CSR consultant.
2. Research Methodology: Understanding the method of research used by the identified CSR consultant is also important. Systematic study and analysis of collected evidence and data points with a linked and inclusive perspective to support the policy level decision making must be the specialty of the consultancy. It should be based on learning, analysis and should be action-oriented.
3. Proper CSR-CSO partnership: A well captivated civil society organization with the required experience to implement the initiative must be given utmost priority by the consultants. Building a credible network of civil societies is crucial. A consultant must identify and select credible implementing partners with relevant experience for the programme and hold a command on community mobilization while also mitigating the risks when required.
4. Understand your Social return on investment: Only having academic credentials and practical experience in business is not enough. CSR is all about bridging the gap between profit and purpose which means that the advisors must be capable enough to provide you an in-depth knowledge on how social change works. An efficient CSR consultancy helps the corporate identify how effectively the organization uses its capital and other resources to create value for the community.
5. Diversity: Identifying the work scope and areas of work is equally crucial for a CSR consultant. One must understand that CSR consultants reflecting the internal and external audiences one needs to reach and influence. This means the consultant must have access to a wide range of different opinions and to people of different ages, genders, and culture.
6. Building capacity: The best CSR consultants places itself to the highest degree of priority on putting themselves out of priority and concentrate on delivering outputs.