Current status of CSR: A Case of Indian Hotel Industry

Abstract

CSR refers to the way businesses are managed to bring about an overall positive impact on the communities, cultures, societies and environments in which they operate. The fundamentals of CSR rest on the fact that not only public policy but even corporate should be responsible enough to address social issues. Thus companies should deal with the challenges and issues looked after to a certain extent by the states. Among other countries India has one of the oldest traditions of CSR. However, it has been observed that these practices are eye wash and are done only for name sake. The main reason for this is that it has not been rightly understood in letter and spirit. In most instances, it is construed as an act of charity. It should be understood as the guiding philosophy, that businesses should not be run only to drive profits to their shareholders but also to drive proportionate benefits to the stakeholders around them. This includes everything which get effected by the operation of an industry like natural environment that gets impacted due to their existence, the stake-holding communities they get dispossessed or get adversely impacted for being on the side-lines, the employees that help create wealth, etc. The concept becomes more and more relevant in developing and less developed countries where social and economic divide is more profound. On this backdrop, current paper is an attempt to strive the role played by one of the industry i.e. hotel industry in CSR. By reviewing literature of previous studies and other published information, an attempt is made to explore the efforts undertaken by some of the chain properties toward CSR.

Keywords: CSR, Hotel Industry, Chain Hotels

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