Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one of the most important issues and developments of the 21^st century. In the recent years, the challenges faced by the companies and society call for a major role of CSR. There is a lot of pressure on the companies to operate in an economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable way and to spend on CSR for the long run survival of the business. In this context, the present paper attempts to discuss the concept of CSR, legal framework of CSR, and analyze and compare the CSR spending of select Indian companies. The select Indian companies (SICs) for the present paper include HDFC Bank Limited , ITC Limited, Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited, Reliance Industries Limited and Infosys Limited which were the top five companies by weightage in NIFTY 50 as on May 31, 2017.

It is found that RIL is at the top in CSR spending on Schedule VII (i), (ii), (vii) and (Multi Areas and Overheads). ITCL is at the top in CSR spending on Schedule VII (iii) and (iv). IL is at the top in CSR spending on Schedule VII (v). HDFCBL is at the top in CSR spending on Schedule VII (x). HDFCBL is at the bottom in CSR spending on Schedule VII (i), and (iv). HDFCL is at the bottom in CSR spending on Schedule VII (ii), (iii), (vii), (x) and (Multi Areas and Overheads). RIL is at the bottom in CSR spending on Schedule VII (v). RIL is at the top while HDFCL is at the bottom in total CSR spending, required CSR spending and budgeted CSR spending. Schedule VII (i) has been considered to be the most important area for CSR spending by SICs while the SICs have not yet started spending any amount on the areas including Schedule VII (vi), Schedule VII (viii), Schedule VII (ix) and Schedule (xi).

In order to ensure concentrated efforts of the companies on CSR practices in uniform manner, it is suggested that the regulatory authorities should focus on specifying an exhaustive list of CSR practices with some tax benefits, prescribing minimum and maximum ceiling on allocation to various areas of CSR practices and organize more awareness programmes to ensure the active participation of the public for the better results of CSR spending of the companies.

KEY WORDS: Corporate Social Responsibility, Companies (CSR Policy) Rules 2014, Companies Act 2013, Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited, Reliance Industries Limited.