The state government has streamlined spending funds under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities by coming up with a web portal to monitor its management.Plans for the portal – GO CARE (Government of Odisha – CSR Administration and Response Engagement) was revealed at the CSR Council meeting presided over by chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi on December 20.
Padhi advised the companies and corporate houses to take up projects according to local needs in the broad perspective of the state’s priorities. He also advised them to focus on the 22 districts that were not covered under the District Mineral Fund and Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation.
It was decided at the meeting on priorities education, health services and rural development projects under CSR activities. Other categories to be included under the funds were environment conservation and improvement, gender equality and empowerment, relief works, Swachh Bharat, preservation of development of national heritage, armed forces, sports, slum area development and technology incubators.Industries secretary Sanjeev Chopra said CSR spending in the state during the period from the 2014-15 to the 2017-18 fiscal years was to the tune of Rs 1,426 crore.
During the meetings, the officials decided to upload the projects on the website to allow corporate groups to consider them and take them up for implementation under their CSR activities.The GO CARE portal aims to bring about more transparency in CSR spending and assist the corporate groups to align their CSR activities with the state’s development goals.The companies with either net worth of Rs 500 crore or more, a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or more, or annual net profit of Rs 5 crore are required to spend at least two percent of their average net profit on CSR activities.
Article Source: The Telegraph