Corporate Social Responsibility At The Bottom of Pyramid

Abstract

The Companies Act, 2013, by mandating the spending on corporate social responsibility by corporates, has re-ignited the ever going debate on business and societal relationship. Keith Davis, one of the pioneers of the CSR debate raised two thought-provoking queries in the 1960s: “What does the business person owe society?” and “Can business afford to ignore its social responsibilities?”Despite the fact that even if as per going concern concept, businesses have indefinite life, it is the profit which fuels the businesses to go on indefinitely. The life of an enterprise can also come to an abrupt end, if it fails to earn profit for a prolonged period. Failure of an enterprise also disrupts the economic ecosystem created by it. Employees lose their jobs, Government loses tax revenue, associate companies lose the business opportunities, Bankers lose the loan amount, owners lose the investment etc. Thus, it can be said that one of the moral or ethical duty of the enterprise it to continue to operate, which is possible only by earning profits. Therefore, the concept of CSR should not be understood only as charity or philanthropic activities undertaken by the organisation but also the creation of symbiotic relationship with the society by building economic ecosystem. Bottom of Pyramid (BoP) concept provides one such opportunity and the CSR activities directed towards the BoP may be instrumental in achieving this objective.