The Changing Facets of Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibilities in India and their Interrelationship

Abstract

CG and CSR can be described as two sides of the same coin. Better governance leads the corporates to behave responsibly for the wellbeing of all the stakeholders. CSR is the medium through which corporates address the large group of stakeholders. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) moving far ahead from its age old domain of philanthropy and charity has now reached to a new hallmark of Corporate responsiveness and action to social issues and demand for sustainability in order to advance further towards a new era of collective future action for factoring the sustainable business strategy for good governance and development of the society and its people. The recent changing in the laws in India related to CSR and CG practices in India triggers this study to determine the relationship between them and also measure the influence of governance attributes on CSR practices of Indian corporates. The BSE SENSEX companies in India are the leaders in good governance practices and also the flag bearers in carrying out major CSR activities even when the CSR was not mandatory in India. The influence of corporate board attributes like Board Size, Board independent, Chairman-CEO duality, Female representative in corporate board, multiple directorships, and Promoter and directors shareholding on Corporate Social Responsibility measured through multiple regression analysis. The results revealed that chairman-CEO duality and the present of female directors in corporate board significantly influence of CSR contribution. Before generalization of the result of study further research could be undertaken taking a large group of Indian companies and wider corporate governance variables.