The Indian CSR Story

About Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee

Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee is widely celebrated as the Father of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India, a visionary who placed “CSR – The Indian Way” on the global stage. His pioneering work transformed CSR from a peripheral activity into a legislated national force for inclusive growth, making India the only country in the world with a mandatory CSR law.

As Secretary to the Government of India, he pioneered the first CSR and Sustainability Guidelines for Public Sector Enterprises and played a pivotal role in shaping Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013. The law required eligible companies to spend at least 2% of their average net profits on CSR initiatives aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. His Chatterjee Model embedded CSR at the Board level, with transparency and accountability, and focused resources on education, healthcare, poverty alleviation, rural development, gender equality, and environmental sustainability. Overcoming initial corporate resistance and bureaucratic skepticism, Dr. Chatterjee set international benchmarks for responsible business conduct. Based on his model of nation building known as the “Chatterjee Model”, he was instrumental in framing and issuing the CSR guidelines for the Central Public Sector CPSE in April 2010 as a pioneering step to institutionalize CSR in India and bridging the gap between the Corporate and the social sector.