VOLUNTARY CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (VCSR) ? AN ENTREPRENEUR’S PERSPECTIVE (WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BUSINESS UNITS IN BANGALORE, INDIA)

Indian development sector has witnessed an unprecedented interests and investments across the value chain demonstrating the highly stable economy that has lead to a great momentum for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) contributions under the ambit of new Companies Act, 2013,which mandates companies with an annual turnover of 10 Billion INR or more, or a net worth of 5 Billion INR or more, or a net profit of 50 Million INR or more, to spend at least 2 percent of their average net profit over the previous three years towards CSR programmes. Thus a common adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices by eligible companies is expected to have far-reaching implications on economy in coming years. If the non-eligible micro, mini and small business enterprises across India that together contribute approximately 8 percent to GDP, 45 percent to the manufacturing output and 40 percent to the exports, initiate their voluntary contributions towards Social Responsibility activities, the quantum of investment may match that by eligible companies and the resultant implications will be highly considerable if measured on a proper scale. With this background, the author has attempted to assess the perception of these non-eligible micro and small business enterprises towards social responsibility, their present status, readiness, challenges and avenues, and in the process has coined a new terminology Voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility-VCSR, as the contributions by these small and tiny industries are not mandatory. This paper attempts for a randomized trial of empirically investigating 50 SMEs in and around Bangalore, India and hypothetically reveals that most of them are not keen in associating with ongoing Government sponsored development programs, rather are interested in the formation of clusters to take up VCSR programs, agreeable for 1% to 2% of their net profit contributions, welcome the involvement of local NGOs and other consulting organizations for improved impact of VCSR and so on.