Reliance Industries has emerged as the top company in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR), having spent over Rs. 760 crore, followed by state-owned ONGC and IT giant Infosys, Parliament was informed today.
In a written reply to Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said a total of 460 listed firms have so far disclosed spending Rs. 6,337.36 crore in 2014-15. This included 51 PSUs that spent Rs. 2,386.60 crore.
Reliance Industries shelled out Rs. 760.58 crore on CSR followed by ONGC (Rs. 495.23 crore), Infosys (Rs. 239.54 crore), TCS (Rs. 219 crore) and ITC (Rs. 214.06 crore).
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The new Companies Act mandates every company with a net worth of Rs. 100 crore to set aside minimum 2 per cent of their three-year average annual net profit for CSR activities.
Most of the funds (Rs.1,462.6 crore) were spent on education or vocational skills while Rs.1,421.66 crore were spent on eradicating hunger, poverty and healthcare.
Companies also allocated funds towards clean Ganga Fund, Swachh Bharat Kosh, promotion of sports, art and culture.
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State-wise, Maharashtra has topped the chart in terms of CSR spending. The state has 202 projects.
Other companies in the top 10 include NTPC (Rs 205.18 crore), NMDC (Rs 188.65 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 171.46 crore), Oil India (Rs 133.31 crore) and Wipro (Rs 132.70 crore).
Other companies that managed in the top 20 are Indian Oil, BHEL, Mahindra & Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, GAIL and Hindustan Zinc.