CSR Committee Session on Understanding the Companies Act with the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs -9th November 2016

On 9th November, the AmCham CSR Committee hosted a session on understanding the companies act with the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs at the Cisco office in Gurgaon. Mr. Harish Krishnan, Chairman – CSR Committee, AmCham and Executive Director, Public Affairs & Strategic Engagement, India & SAARC, Cisco Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd. made opening remarks.

Ms. Gayatri Subramaniam, Convener and Chief Programme Executive (CSR), National Foundation for Corporate Social Responsibility, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) made a presentation on Section 135 of the Companies Act and she explained the role of the NFCSR as the body in charge of implementing CSR in India. Gayatri mentioned that section 135 is applicable to 10,450 companies and from that, 3,000 foreign companies. Some of the topics covered in the interactive session included the rules and regulations around spending the 2% in CSR, schedule VII CSR thematic areas and how companies may incur expenditure up to 5% of CSR budgets for building CSR capacity of their own personnel.

The NGO showcase presentation was made by Ms. Asmahan Pogal, Program Specialist, Global Give Back Circle (GGBC), who discussed the progress of the program that launched in India earlier this year. She explained how the GGBC, a mentorship based program, uses a holistic transformation process designed to help at-risk girls make that quantum leap to economic freedom.