Corporate Social Responsibility of Banking Industry in India

Abstract

Corporate world of the modern era is focused towards profit. Only a few companies can be seen which actually fit in marketing triangle where the three points – company , customer and the society have equal prominence for them.’ This is a common perception that the common public has about the corporate world. The proposed study focuses on this perception and attempts to test the reality of the statement. The research paper attempts to check the CSR practices of banking industry if it is focused towards profit only or is doing something for the society also which takes some of the banks’ profits away from them. SBI, Federal Bank, IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank, Bandhan, HDFC, ICICI and Axis Bank have been studied for the purpose of this research paper. Objective of the research is to study the consumers’ perception of CSR activities of Indian Banking Industry. A lot of researches have been done on corporate social responsibility and the corporation’s financial performance but very few researches have analyzed the banking sector deeply for this purpose. We come across ethical/unethical practices of banking industry of India which draw our attention to seriousness of the issue. The research is exploratory by nature and attempts to explore the inclination towards corporate social responsibility of financial service sector.Survey tool has been used to collect Primary data from educated youth of India, who are consumers of Indian banking industry. The study concludes that some banks conduct the social activities because of legal compulsion from the Companies Act 2013, but some banks have been doing it before the inclusion of CSR in the Companies Act also. At times the CSR pressures are created due to community needs. Most of the banks in the country are following basic CSR policies. A few banks are also involved in social activities beyond the legal requirement of the Act. This is a bright sign for the economy that the consumers have shown their trust in the banking industry and have said that banks are in a position to give back to the economy what they have taken from it. The new hopes for unattended weak areas of the country are emerging with these practices. Further scope of the study can be study based on primary data from financial sector consumers.