India’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending reached Rs 40,794 crore in FY 2024–25, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% over the past decade. However, a new analysis by Sattva Consulting and India Data Insights finds that CSR funding remains concentrated in established sectors and better-funded geographies, even as several development indicators show limited progress or deteriorating outcomes.
The eighth edition of Sattva Consulting’s annual State of CSR in India report examines CSR spending against India’s development indicators to assess how closely funding aligns with areas of greatest need. The analysis comes against a backdrop of uneven progress towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): just 33.3 per cent of indicators are on track, while 42.7 per cent show limited progress and 24 per cent are worsening. These findings point to the need to move beyond broad sector-level allocations towards specific development challenges and their underlying drivers.
Education, healthcare, livelihoods and skilling, environment, and rural development together account for over 80 per cent of CSR funding. While these sectors represent core development needs, a deeper analysis reveals that funding is concentrated within specific sub-sectors. This creates an opportunity to direct CSR capital towards unmet needs and emerging development priorities within these sectors.
Geographic disparities further illustrate the challenge. The five states with the highest multidimensional poverty receive just Rs 94 in CSR funding per capita, compared with Rs 455 in the five lowest-need states. Bihar’s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is nearly five times that of Maharashtra. Yet, Maharashtra receives nearly 19 times more CSR funding per capita. Between FY2021–22 and FY2024–25, Maharashtra received an additional Rs 3,381.9 crore in CSR funding, compared with Rs 292.5 crore in Bihar.
While CSR funding in higher-need states and districts is beginning to grow, the increase is yet to translate into funding commensurate with the scale of development challenges. The report identifies significant headroom to deepen this shift: redirecting an additional 5% of FY2024–25 CSR funding to high-need districts would triple the funding they receive today.
“CSR has brought scale and predictability to funding, but addressing India’s persistent challenges requires greater agility in how this capital is deployed. Corporate philanthropy cannot remain static in its approach. It must continuously reassess where it can make the greatest difference, directing capital towards critical gaps where regions have been unable to break inertia and other forms of capital are less likely to flow,” said Srikrishna Sridhar Murthy, Co-founder and CEO, Sattva Consulting.
The report recommends that companies use partnerships, innovation and technology to make CSR a multiplier of impact, unlocking outcomes that extend beyond what funding alone can achieve.
About Sattva Consulting
Sattva Consulting is a global impact consulting firm from India. Since 2009, we have engaged with communities, business, and government to achieve societal impact at scale. We believe that Civil society, Business, and Government all have a critical role to play in building an equitable and sustainable world, and we actively partner with all stakeholders to enable impact through our advisory and orchestration services, knowledge and data platforms—built as public goods for the ecosystem, and collaborative solutions and partnerships.
To know more, visit sattva.co.in.
About India Data Insights
India Data Insights (IDI), an initiative by Sattva Consulting, aims to empower India’s development sector with actionable, ready-to-use data insights to enable sharper decisions and maximise impact. Built as a public good, IDI consolidates public data across SDG practice areas on one, unified platform, offering insightful visualisations, interactives, blogs and ready-to-use-charts and dashboards.
To know more, visit India Data Insights
