The overall spend in Maharashtra stood at Rs 8,939 crore in FY24, or over 46.53 per cent of the overall spend of Rs 19,208 crore, the report by Crisil, a rating agency, said.
The overall CSR spends by India Inc shot up 30 per cent on-year in FY24 over the Rs 14,714 crore in FY23, the report said. Maharashtra’s share in the overall spend increased to 46.53 per cent in FY24 from 45.19 per cent in FY23, Crisil said.
However, corporations seem not to have paid adequate attention to the aspirational districts, which are in most need of developmental works, the report said.
“Geographic distribution of the spend, however, remains uneven, with targeted investment in aspirational districts, which face the most developmental challenges, limited relative to overall spend,” it said.
Of the overall Rs 19,208 crore CSR spend in 2023-24, only 12 per cent came to the aspirational districts, the report said.
A total of 397 companies of the 2,020 companies undertaking CSR spending allocated money to programmes in the aspirational districts, the report said, pointing to the priorities in spends for these 397 companies who had aspirational districts on their radar.These 397 companies collectively spent Rs 14,209 crore on CSR, accounting for 73 per cent of the overall spending, but allocated only Rs 2,390 crore to the aspirational districts, Crisil said, stressing the need for “concerted efforts” to address developmental challenges in such spots.
It can be noted that the government had come out with the aspirational districts programme in 2018, and tagged 112 districts in the bucket after considering a slew of parameters. Four of the aspirational districts are in Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, the Crisil report noted a shift where companies are reducing their reliance on non-government organisations and increasingly choosing to implement the CSR programmes directly. Share of companies using implementing agencies declined to 28 per cent in FY24 from 37 per cent in FY23.
From a spends perspective, Rs 3,839 crore or less than 20 per cent of the overall Rs 19,208 crore, was funnelled through implementing partners in FY24.
“We are seeing companies build stronger internal capabilities and assume greater ownership of programme implementation. This reflects improved governance, accountability and impact measurement,” the rating agency’s managing director and chief executive Amish Mehta said.
Crisil Foundation’s chief operating officer Maya Vengurlekar said companies are moving from cheque-writing models to structured programme management, with stronger monitoring, outcome tracking and board-level oversight.
Education and healthcare continued to be the biggest areas being supported by India Inc, and environment came third at Rs 601 crore, accounting for 3 per cent of the overall spending, the report said, adding that other important areas are overlooked.
“Promotion of sports, national heritage protection and funds for technology have not been accorded much priority from a CSR lens, despite these being critical areas for the country,” it said.