Indian corporates spent a record ₹34,909 crore on CSR initiatives in 2024 – 13 per cent higher from the previous year.
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Pointing out a substantial geographical imbalance in the current spending by companies from the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds, a study has said that five States – Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Gujarat – and the Union Territory of Delhi have received over 60 per cent of the funds.
According to the Development Intelligence Unit’s (DIU) report titled ‘Investing in Tomorrow: Need for realigning CSR spends with district development’, released Thursday, India’s most underdeveloped districts have got only a small fraction of the total amount spent under CSR activities.
Indian corporates spent a record ₹34,909 crore on CSR initiatives in 2024 – 13 per cent higher from the previous year. The study said that companies are focusing their spending in areas close to their operations, often due to a misunderstanding that the law mandates such local investments.
“Only 30 per cent of eligible rural districts receive CSR support that aligns with their development needs. About 23 per cent show a complete mismatch, while 47 per cent are only partially aligned. This indicates that companies are guided more by convenience or compliance than by data, evidence-based approaches, or development priorities,” Transform Rural India (TRI) said in a statement.
DIU is a joint enterprise of TRI and Sambodhi Research and Communications and has been holding a conference on rural issues every year.
Funding gap
India’s CSR framework, mandated under Section 135 of the Companies Act 2013, requires eligible companies to allocate at least 2 per cent of their average net profits from the preceding three years toward social development.
The report also pointed out that there is a major misalignment between CSR fund distribution and the actual development needs of rural districts.
“Invest money where it’s needed not necessarily where your factory sits,” said Sandeep Ghosh, Director of DIU. “We have found that too much CSR funding is given on the basis of convenience and not on the basis of need. This needs to change for those in need to be actually impacted by CSR funds,” Ghosh said.
The findings are based on a data-driven methodology that contrasts district-level CSR allocations over five years (2018-2023) with the quality of life in rural areas, measured through a rural quality of life (RQOL) index, developed by the DIU using 69 indicators from 13 official data sets from nine key development areas such as health, education, infrastructure, employment, gender and sustainability.
The report stated that many CSR initiatives lack impact assessments, duplicate government schemes, and show weak community participation, limited innovation, and poor strategic planning. It has suggested the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to create clear policies to help companies direct CSR funds to the regions and sectors that need them most.
Published on August 7, 2025