Corporate Social Responsibility in Indian Telecom Sector - A Study

Abstract

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has emanated from the term social responsibility of a business. The functioning of a business is largely influenced by a lot of internal and external factors known as business environment. A business operates in a society, as such, it has some inescapable obligations to the society. Those inescapable obligations are known as social responsibility of a business. When we are talking about CSR it is nothing but a form of self-regulation observed by the corporate with an objective to pay their tribute to the stakeholders and society at large. Theoretical and conceptual aspects of CSR have mushroomed up comparatively faster than their implementation in practical fields. Nowadays it has been elevated to the status of a good advertisement and indicator of corporate citizenship.

There has been a growing need among all sectors including telecom sector to include a substantial portion in its websites which may be in the name of CSR activities or Mission/Vision Statements or Corporate Initiatives etc. In the era of globalization, the concepts of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility are increasingly attracting public attention and scrutiny. Today the concepts of CSR and sustainable development overlap in many areas. McWilliams and Siegel (2001) defined CSR as situations where the firm goes beyond the compliance and engages in actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm. As such, in reality, CSR implies engagement of corporate in some activities beyond what it is legally bound to do.

In the present article the Indian Telecom Sector has been selected for case study and at the fag end of this article some suggestions have been given that need to be taken care of by the Central Government and the people by whom the CSR is implemented in different organizations.