India Inc has asked corporate affairs minister Sachin Pilot to include the value of pro bono work done by their employees for social causes and non-governmental organisations in their statutory corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending under the new Companies Act.
The proposal is in line with the practice in the United States, where a value is assigned to such voluntary work done by professionals without charging a fee. Pro bono work in the US was valued at $187 billion in 2010.
In a comprehensive proposal submitted to the minister, India's top corporate houses such as the Tatas, Birlas and Godrejs have said they are creating a national volunteering grid, powered by a tech app developed by Infosys Technologies, that matches volunteers willing to offer their skills and time to causes close to their hearts with NGOs that could benefit from their help.
This is a critical part of a larger road map to demonstrate corporate India's commitment to pro bono work being laid out by a task force led by Tata Group's chief brand custodian Mukund Rajan.
While assigning a value for such voluntary work could pose a challenge, a similar tool has been developed to match corporate donors with NGOs needing funds under the aegis of the India @75 Trust, whose members include Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry, Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh and Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj.
India @75 is an idea enunciated by late management guru CK Prahalad in 2007, when he presented his vision of what India should achieve by 2022. India has over 3.3 million NGOs working on different developmental goals and 81% of them are keen on getting skilled volunteers to improve their operations, according to a study by Taproot Foundation.
Pilot is learnt to have agreed in principle to consider pro bono work as part of companies' mandatory CSR spending, set at 2% of profits under the 2013 Companies Law, as long as their boards ratify such an activity as meeting their societal needs.
"There are still some ambiguities, so we have urged the minister to champion and advocate the idea that time and resources devoted by professional employees for pro bono development work could also be an avenue for CSR spending, and have suggested that up to 10% of the CSR requirements could be met through such activities," said Rajan Navani, chairman of the national committee, India @ 75 and managing director of Jetline Group.
The proposal is in line with the practice in the United States, where a value is assigned to such voluntary work done by professionals without charging a fee. Pro bono work in the US was valued at $187 billion in 2010.
In a comprehensive proposal submitted to the minister, India's top corporate houses such as the Tatas, Birlas and Godrejs have said they are creating a national volunteering grid, powered by a tech app developed by Infosys Technologies, that matches volunteers willing to offer their skills and time to causes close to their hearts with NGOs that could benefit from their help.
This is a critical part of a larger road map to demonstrate corporate India's commitment to pro bono work being laid out by a task force led by Tata Group's chief brand custodian Mukund Rajan.
While assigning a value for such voluntary work could pose a challenge, a similar tool has been developed to match corporate donors with NGOs needing funds under the aegis of the India @75 Trust, whose members include Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry, Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh and Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj.
India @75 is an idea enunciated by late management guru CK Prahalad in 2007, when he presented his vision of what India should achieve by 2022. India has over 3.3 million NGOs working on different developmental goals and 81% of them are keen on getting skilled volunteers to improve their operations, according to a study by Taproot Foundation.
Pilot is learnt to have agreed in principle to consider pro bono work as part of companies' mandatory CSR spending, set at 2% of profits under the 2013 Companies Law, as long as their boards ratify such an activity as meeting their societal needs.
"There are still some ambiguities, so we have urged the minister to champion and advocate the idea that time and resources devoted by professional employees for pro bono development work could also be an avenue for CSR spending, and have suggested that up to 10% of the CSR requirements could be met through such activities," said Rajan Navani, chairman of the national committee, India @ 75 and managing director of Jetline Group.
