Corporate Social Responsibility and Civil Society in India

Explores how the partnerships between big businesses and civil society organisations are influencing the development and rights landscape in India.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and corporations have a history of hostility to each other. According to NGO workers, businesses selfishly exploit workers, despoil natural resources, and distort democracy to serve their own profit-making ends. According to business executives, NGOs are hopelessly naïve, inefficient, and interfere in the market in ways that reduce economic growth. And yet, in the past decade more and more NGOs and businesses are collaborating in new ways. Individuals from both sectors are setting up social impact enterprises and social investing funds are increasing. The more traditional forms of corporate-NGO collaboration have expanded as more funds are flowing from business to the social sector. The divide between the corporate sector and civil society seems to be narrowing. Why is this happening and what are its consequences? This book examines these trends in India, where since 2013 the state has mandated co-operation between the largest firms and NGOs in pursuit of inclusive and sustainable development.