The main purpose of this study is to find out the thrust area and scope of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities from the point of view of common public and also to find out the gap in the activities carried out by the banking institutions and the areas for CSR according to the public. For the purpose of the study, a comparative analysis of both public and private sector institutions in carrying out their CSR activities is also included in the paper. This study is based on both primary as well as secondary data collected from the public and reports of the banking institutions for the past five years (2010-11 to 2014-15). The areas of CSR activities being vast in nature cannot be studied totally, and as a result, only specific areas that have been mentioned in the annual reports of the banking institutions have been included in the study. The analysis has been carried out in two parts: the first part shows the areas and the unique activity or schemes being undertaken by each individual bank and the second part of the analysis shows the general public views on CSR.

The advent of 1991 LPG model has not only opened up our economy but also moved us towards a globalized market where it becomes important to satisfy all the stakeholders of the economy in a more sustainable way. The business organizations were expected to play a central role in efforts to eliminate poverty, achieve equitable and accountable system of governance, and ensure environmental security, in the backdrop of which the term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) comes to the fore in the development discussions. Business basically being a socioeconomic entity cannot be carried out in isolation of society. It is a group endeavor and therefore has a number of responsibilities towards different stakeholders. The term stakeholders can be defined as “those individuals or groups who depend on the organization to fulfill their own goals and on whom, in turn, the organization depends” (Johnson and Scholes, 2002); then one organization is concerned with a very large amount of people, if not everyone since many people depend, either directly or indirectly, on an organization’s activity. And, if the organization is accountable to all its stakeholders (i.e., everyone) rather than to one constituency (i.e., the shareholders), then the notion of accountability becomes valueless because it is too broadly set and useless from a managerial point of view (Hummels, 1998; and Vinten, 2000). In order to limit the scope of the term ‘stakeholder’, various authors have sub-categorized them. The most widely used is the external/internal stakeholder framework (Johnson and Scholes, 2002). So, different stakeholders can be—management, workers, customers, shareholders, government and the society. So, in simple terms we can say that realization and fulfillment of responsibilities towards these stakeholders is termed as CSR. The concept of CSR revolves around issues like ethics, social upliftment, environmental protection and solution to other global problems and the three keys to an effective CSR policy are commitment, clarity and congruence with corporate values.

Corporate Governance Journal, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Banks, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures (CSRD), Public Awareness.