India Carbon Limited

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

For India Carbon Limited (ICL) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the Companys commitment to its stakeholders to conduct business in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner while recognizing the interests of its stakeholders.

Even much before CSR became mandatory; ICL recognized that its business activities have both direct and indirect impacts on the society and strived to integrate its business processes with the social processes in order to enable creation and distribution of wealth for the betterment of its stakeholders in an ethical and transparent manner. It is committed to sustainable development and to meet the interests of its stakeholders. It is also committed to continuously upgrade its CSR initiatives in order to make a positive impact on the people staying in and around the areas of its factory on a continuous basis.

Baseline Assessment / Need Assessment

Baseline Surveys are an important aspect of CSR project planning and implementation. It not only helps the funding corporate rationalize on the need and importance of the project from the stakeholders viewpoint but also helps benchmark the critical indicators and parameters for the specific project to understand its progress. CSR Baseline Surveys gives an opportunity to understand once stakeholders before engagement and thus helps in proper planning keeping in mind the interests and expectations of different stakeholders.

The key aspects covered in the baseline assessments is the profile of the location i.e village, block, district etc in terms of its demography, caste composition, religion profile, socio economic condition of the communities, the current status of community services like healthcare, education, drinking water, sanitation, skills and livelihood etc

CSR Need Assessment studies which are focused on identifying prioritized needs on the ground after undertaking a diagnostic study of the survey region to conceptualize relevant CSR and Community projects which are impactful and sustainable.

CSR Need Assessment helps to align the priorities of the community in a particular area to the social interventions to be undertaken by the company or an organization. The most important aspect of any social intervention is the active community participation in formulation and implementation of social projects. Community ownership ensures the success of the project whereas any top down approach leads to failure and poor social perception of the organization.

CSR Need Assessment helps companies to align the priorities of the community in a particular area to the social interventions to be undertaken by the company or an organization. The most important aspect of any social intervention is the active community participation in formulation and implementation of social projects..

Objectives

The objectives of ICLs CSR activities are as follows.

In conformity to the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013, read with Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014 from time-to-time, to indicate the CSR projects that ICL plans to undertake.
To create value for the stakeholders and society that is fundamentally linked to ICLs core business and operations through its initiatives for their sustainable development.
To enhance value creation for the community around ICLs areas of operation by fostering goodwill among the stakeholders towards the Company by enhancing their quality of life.
To carry out developmental initiatives in order to meet the calls of the present without compromising the ability of future to meet its needs.

Strategy

ICLs CSR philosophy is centered on the idea of creating shared value focusing on the Triple Bottom-line approach (People, Planet & Profit). The thrust of CSR shall be on capacity building, empowerment of communities, inclusive socio-economic growth, environment protection, promotion of green and energy efficient technologies, development of backward regions as well as upliftment of the marginalized and under-privileged sections of the society.

Policy Statement

For India Carbon Limited, the Corporate Social Responsibility is a planned set of activities taking into consideration the Company’s capabilities, expectations of the communities living in and around the areas of its operation as well as where it has its presence, targeted to have a significant positive impact in the long term. The aim is to play a catalytic role in the sustainable socio-economic development in the regions where the industry is located or where its interests lie, attempting to create an enabling working environment for ICL as well as income generation opportunities for the community keeping sight of sustained regional development.

Organization setup

The CSR projects in the Company shall be implemented under the guidance of the Boards Sub-Committee on CSR comprising of three or more Directors out of which at least one Director shall be an Independent Director.
The CSR Sub-Committee of the Board shall have the following responsibilities. (i) Formulate and recommend CSR policy to the Board for approval. (ii) Recommend for approval of the Board the amount of expenditure to be incurred on the activities in a financial year along with projects to be undertaken earmarking funds for broad area-wise projects. (iii) Monitor from time to time the implementation of the CSR projects undertaken by the Company.

Scope of activities

The scope of ICLs CSR programmes shall be governed by the provisions of Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013 and shall include the following broad heads.

Eradicating hunger, poverty and malnutrition, promoting preventive health care and sanitation including contribution to the Swach Bharat Kosh set-up by the Central Government for the promotion of sanitation and making available safe drinking water.
Promoting education, including special education and employment enhancing vocation skills especially among children, women, elderly and the differently able and livelihood enhancement projects.
Promoting gender equality, empowering women, setting up homes and hostels for women and orphans; setting up old age homes, day care centers and such other facilities for senior citizens; and measures for reducing inequalities faced by socially and economically backward groups.
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 including contribution to the Clean Ganga Fund set-up by the Central Government for rejuvenation of river Ganga.
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.
Measures for the benefit of armed forces veterans, war widows and their dependants.
Training to promote rural sports, nationally recognized sports, Paralympics sports and Olympic sports.
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 Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, other backward classes, minorities and women.
Contributions or funds provided to technology incubators located within academic institutions, which are approved by the Central Government.
Rural Development Projects.

Budget

ICL shall, in every financial year, spend at least 2% of the average net profits of the Company made during the three immediately preceding three financial years on its CSR activities as per the provision of Companies Act, 2013. CSR Budget shall be allocated for each financial year with the approval of the Board of Director on the recommendation of the Board’s Sub-Committee on CSR.

Planning

The identification of CSR activities at Unit / Corporate level shall be done by any one or combination of the following methods. Proposals/Requests from a registered & specialized body for providing financial assistance for carrying out specific CSR initiative subject to the condition that it fulfills the criteria as prescribed in the statute in this regard. (Proposals to be considered only after checking the credibility of the proposing body through evaluation of necessary documents. Site visits may also be made if required).
On the basis of identified CSR activities / projects, the Annual CSR Plan shall be prepared by the CSR Committee.
The Annual Plan shall be scrutinized and examined by the respective Unit – CSR Committee. The Annual Plan recommended by the Unit – CSR Committee would then be put up for recommendation of the subsequent level(s) of authorities as per due procedure.
After moderation, if any and compilation it shall be put up to the CSR Committee as constituted under Section 135(1) of the Companies Act, 2013.
The CSR Committee shall consider and recommend the comprehensive Annual Plan to the ICL Board for its approval.
The plan as approved by the Board shall be communicated to Units for implementation.
The CSR Annual Plan may, however, be amended / modified at any time during the financial year as per the procedure detailed above. Units may propose addition / deletion / modification - with proper justification - of project / activity after getting it duly recommended from the respective competent authorities for inclusion / removal from the CSR Plan. On receipt of such proposals, CSR Committee may consider recommending suitable modification in the CSR Plan for approval of the Board.
CMD, ICL shall be authorized for reappropriation of projects within the overall financial outlay which may be informed to the Board.
The approved CSR Annual Plan shall form part of this policy.

Implementation methodology

The CSR activities / projects listed in the approved Annual Plan shall be implemented using internal resources or through collaborating with NGOs / specialized agencies / trusts / institutions / foundations / societies / Government bodies etc. in accordance with the provision of Companies Act, 2013.

Monitoring Mechanism

The following shall be the monitoring mechanism in this regard.

The CSR Committee shall be responsible for monitoring of CSR activities at every stage on day-to-day basis. They shall keep track of the progress of the CSR activities on a regular basis through status check from implementing agency, site visits etc. and also obtain feedbacks from the targeted beneficiaries.

Reporting

The contents of the CSR Policy shall be disclosed in the Director’s Report forming part of the Company’s Annual Report. It shall also be placed on the Company’s website in the prescribed format. It shall include the following. (i) A brief outline of the CSR Policy, including overview of projects undertaken and a reference to the web link to the CSR policy and projects. (ii) Composition of the Board’s Sub-Committee on CSR. (iii) Average net profit for last three Financial Years and the Prescribed CSR Allocation (Budget). (iv) The details of amount spent on CSR during the financial year in the prescribed format. (v) A responsibility statement of the CSR Committee that the implementation and monitoring of CSR Policy, is in compliance with CSR objectives and policy of the Company.
The report would be signed by Director (Personnel) or Chairman of the CSR Committee.