Corporate India’s CSR expenditure reached a new high in 2024-25, with a 17% increase, yet concerns remain over regional imbalances and project impact, prompting calls for more transparency and targeted investment.
Corporate India’s spending on social responsibility climbed to a record ₹40,794 crore in the 2024-25 financial year, according to the Bharat CSR Performance Report 2026 published by the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs and cited by business publications. The total marked a 17% rise from the previous year, helped by a 9% increase in the number of companies making mandatory contributions, while 1,012 new firms began CSR activity during the year.
The scale of the increase has not removed a long-running imbalance in where the money goes. Analysis in the report shows CSR funds continue to track economic strength, with wealthier and more industrialised states drawing a disproportionate share. Maharashtra received the largest allocation at ₹8,631 crore, while the broader pattern shows companies often prefer projects near their own plants, offices or headquarters, where oversight is simpler and reporting easier.
Education remained the biggest recipient, taking 34% of total spending, or ₹13,877 crore. Healthcare followed at ₹8,531 crore, equal to 21% of the total, while environmental sustainability rose sharply, up 40% to ₹3,397 crore. Business Standard reported separately that CSR outlays by 183 central public sector enterprises also hit a record ₹6,437 crore in FY2024-25, even as those firms’ net profit fell, with spending concentrated on health, sanitation and poverty alleviation. The same newspaper said NSE main-board companies lifted CSR expenditure 23% to ₹22,212 crore.
The concentration of funds in richer regions has sharpened debate over whether India’s current CSR framework is doing enough to direct private capital towards areas with the greatest development needs. Critics argue that allowing companies wide discretion over project location under Section 135 of the Companies Act can leave poorer districts behind. That is why policymakers and advisers are increasingly looking at incentives for work in underdeveloped or aspirational districts, alongside better disclosure of where money is spent and what it achieves.
For investors, the more important shift may be from compliance to impact. As reporting expectations rise, companies are likely to face greater scrutiny not just over how much they spend, but over geography, outcomes and transparency. The Social Stock Exchange, which is being positioned as a route for channeling a share of CSR outlays, adds to that pressure by making measurable social returns more visible to regulators and markets.
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