An Important Step of Life Insurance Companies towards Corporate Social Responsibility

The growing concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) goes beyond charity and requires the company to act beyond its legal obligations and to integrated social, environmental and ethical concerns into company’s business process.With the rapidly changing corporate environment and more functional autonomy, many organizations have set up separate CSR wings as a strategic tool for sustainable growth. In the current scenario, CSR goes way beyond the old philanthropy of the past — donating money to good causes at the end of the financial year. Instead, it is an all year round responsibility. Indeed, the brand names depend not only on quality, price and uniqueness but on how, cumulatively, they interact with companies’ workforce, community and environment. Business has today, emerged as one of the most powerful institutions on the earth. The globalization and liberalization of the Indian economy has helped in stepping up growth rates. Companies are expanding their operations and crossing geographical boundaries. Indian Life insurance companies too have made their way into the business boom and are today acknowledged as major player and fastest growing sector in India. This sector has also made momentous contribution towards corporate social responsibility. CSR has gained unprecedented importance and has become imperative to any company’s strategic decision making The aim of present paper is to study the conceptual framework of corporate social responsibility. The paper as well highlights the CSR initiatives undertaken by the selected life insurance companies operating in India. The paper is based on secondary data collected from different sources and websites. The paper concludes that life insurance sector of India has taken a number of initiatives for corporate social responsibility, LIC, being the prominent initiator.