Schedule VII, area by area, with examples of projects that qualify, the activities that never count and the rules on capital assets.
10 guides · about 111 minutes of reading · For CSR teams and NGOs planning projects
Explainer · 12 min read
Item (i) of Schedule VII covers health care, hunger and malnutrition, sanitation and safe drinking water, and after education it gets more CSR money than any other area. Here is what qualifies, where the grey areas are and how to fund projects that last.
Explainer · 11 min read
Education is where most Indian CSR money goes. Item (ii) of Schedule VII covers schooling, special education, vocational skills and livelihood projects. Here is what qualifies, where companies go wrong and what to measure.
Explainer · 12 min read
Item (iii) of Schedule VII covers gender equality, homes and hostels for women and children, facilities for older people and work with groups that face inequality. It gets a small share of CSR money. Here is what qualifies, what doesn’t and how to do it well.
Explainer · 11 min read
Item (iv) of Schedule VII covers environmental sustainability, water and soil, forests and wildlife, animal welfare and the Clean Ganga Fund. Here is what qualifies, why work your licences already require never counts, and how to plant trees that survive.
Explainer · 11 min read
Item (v) of Schedule VII covers national heritage, art and culture, from restoring historic buildings to public libraries and traditional crafts. Here is what qualifies, how CSR works at protected monuments, and what doesn’t count.
Explainer · 11 min read
Three short items of Schedule VII cover armed forces and police veterans, training for sport, and contributions to a handful of central government funds. Here is what each allows, the sponsorship trap, and why most other funds, including state relief funds, don’t count.
Explainer · 10 min read
Item (ix) of Schedule VII lets companies count contributions to government-funded incubators and research projects, and to public universities, IITs, national laboratories and named research bodies. Here is what qualifies, what to check and why a company’s own R&D never counts.
Explainer · 11 min read
Three of Schedule VII’s broadest items cover rural development projects, slum area development and disaster management. Here is what each allows, how to work with panchayats and municipalities, and how to respond quickly to a disaster without breaking the rules.
Explainer · 11 min read
Some spending never counts towards a company’s CSR obligation, however worthy it looks. Here are the six exclusions in the CSR Rules, the other limits the MCA’s FAQs add, a table for sorting borderline cases and what happens if you get it wrong.
Explainer · 11 min read
CSR money can build schools, buy ambulances and install water plants, but since January 2021 the company that pays can’t own what it builds. Here is who can, what the annual report must show, and how to plan for transfer and upkeep.