It appears that the government intends to ensure that the CSR spending only goes to specific areas as defined in Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 201
(a) Eradicating hunger, poverty and malnutrition, promoting preventive health care and sanitation and making available safe drinking water
(b) Promoting gender equality, empowering women, setting up homes and hostels for women and orphans, setting up old age homes, day care centres and such other facilities for senior citizens and measures for reducing inequalities faced by socially and economically backward groups
(c) Ensuring environmental sustainability, ecological balance, protection of flora and fauna, animal welfare, agro-forestry, conservation of natural resources and maintaining quality of soil, air and water
(d) Promoting education, including special education and employment enhancing vocation skills especially among children, women, elderly and the differently abled and livelihood enhancement projects
(e) Protection of national heritage, art and culture including restoration of buildings and sites of historical importance and works of art, setting up public libraries, promotion and development of traditional arts and handicrafts
(f) Measures for the benefit of armed forces veterans, war widows and their dependents
(g) Training to promote rural sports, nationally recognised sports, Paralympic sports and Olympic sports
(h) Contributions or funds provided to technology incubators located within academic institutions which are approved by the Central Government
(i) Rural development projects
(j) Contribution to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund or any other fund set up by the Central government for socio-economic development and relief and welfare of the scheduled casts, the scheduled tribes, other backward classes, minorities and women
From Moneylife blog of 1st March 2014
