Finance Minister makes ‘slum development’ a CSR activity
In a noteworthy announcement made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during the course of his Budget speech on Thursday, ‘slum development’ will henceforth be treated as one of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.
The Finance Minister’s move to include ‘slum development’ as a CSR activity will essentially work as a supplement to the ongoing efforts of the government to make Indian cities slum-free.
One of the key advantages of the inclusion of slum development in CSR activities is that, as per the CSR stipulations, bigwig companies which meet specific financial criterion are required to spend 2 percent of the average net profit which they have generated in the last three years on CSR activities.
The efforts to eliminate slums in India were initiated by the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance government when it announced the Rajiv Awas Yojana. That government focused on slum-eradication by tackling disproportions in urban planning and land management practices.
However, despite the previous government’s efforts, a lot of work still needs to be done in the direction of slum development if India has to be made a slum-free country, particularly since the 2011 estimates show that the slum population of the country is still approximately 93 million.
Source- OdishaSun Times
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