Corporate affairs ministry to rate NGOs

By Rajat Arora

NEW DELHI: The ministry of corporate affairs is preparing a list of credible organisations working in the social sector that could be engaged by companies for implementing their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. The list, also containing the track record of NGOs, will be put on the website of Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs. Several big companies had requested the government to rate the NGOs for CSR spending.

The corporate affairs ministry expects around Rs 15,000 crore would be spent in a year on social projects such as environment, skill development, water and sanitation, through CSR activities. “We were receiving a lot of queries from corporates having a tough time selecting NGOs.

So, to facilitate the process, we’re preparing a list of organisations working in different sectors that could be engaged by companies to implement their CSR programmes,” a government official said. Instead of setting up a separate internal department for carrying out CSR activities, many companies are mulling the option to rope in NGOs to implement their CSR initiatives.