ESGDS studied the CSR spends of large Indian corporates to determine if they stepped up their contributions during the pandemic and how CEO salary increases compared to CSR and revenue changes in the same period.

Our analysis shows that the overall CSR spend has registered an increase of 10.3%, despite the pandemic. However, the pandemic did impact the rate of growth, when compared to 2019-20 when the CSR spend increased by 19.9%.

In 2020-21, the CEO salary fell by 7.5% while Revenue increased by 1.4% showing a level of probity in executive compensation.

Manufacturing sector has seen 11.1% increase in CSR spend, revenue increase of 1.5% and a 3.4% decline in CEO salary as compared to Services sector which saw just 8.8% growth in its CSR spending, 1.1% increase in revenues and 14.9% decline CEO in salary.

It is encouraging to see that the corporate leaders are recognizing the importance of CSR spends and are also conscious as to how much CEO salary rises. The industry revenues are expected to normalize this year onwards and it remains to be seen if CSR spend will continue to see a rise especially when India is coming out of couple of tough years.