CSR move to boost R&D

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman expanded the scope of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as part of a range of tax rate cut measures for India Inc on Friday. This is set to boost research impact and thereby improve global rankings for public funded institutes such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITS).

As part of the expansion of scope for the 2 per cent CSR spending, contributions made to public funded universities, IITS, national laboratories and autonomous bodies engaged in conducting research in science, technology, engineering and medicine have now been recognised by the government. The announcement also lays out further clarity on spending on incubators funded by central or state governments or any agency.

Welcoming the move, Sudhir Jain, director, IIT Gandhinagar, said that while IITS have been making efforts to bring funding through other channels, the announcement will provide greater clarity among corporates to invest in research at premier institutes.

“We were already making efforts to bring philanthropic money for doing things that were not possible through government money. Earlier, the CSR law talked about education in general but companies used to be confused. Now the announcement makes it clear that contributions of corporates to IIT will qualify as CSR. This will help us improve quality of research, which will go a long way in boosting IITS' standing in global rankings,” he said.

Presently, IITS can get their infrastructure projects approved from the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA), which will then disburse funds as loans. However, according to Jain, in order to stand at par with other global varsities, public funded universities in India will have to enhance their spending.

The announcement also lays out further clarity on spending on incubators funded by central or state governments or any agency