Emerging Trends in CSR:Revolution at the Grass Root Levels

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) also called corporate conscience, corporate citizenship, social performance is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. The new economic era in India i.e. the post-liberalization phase of the Indian economy was a catalyst for the radical transformation in the corporate social responsibility related practices in the country. The change was twofold: transformation of the conceptual understanding of corporate social responsibility and innovations at the implementation level. At the conceptual level, there was a fundamental transformation from the charity-oriented approach to the stakeholder oriented approach where the target group was seen as stakeholder in the community whose well-being was integral to the long term success of the company. However, the real revolution occurred at the implementation stages where companies have started committing manpower, expertise in addition to financial resources in order to provide a host of services, programs and schemes that are flexible enough to accommodate the needs of the target community.