1. List of 500 companies
a) The list of the 500 largest (by consolidated sales), publicly listed companies in India is based on data from the Bombay Stock Exchange (www.bseindia.com) as on August 2010.
2. Time period of study
a) The financial accounting period for most companies is from April 2009 – March 2010.
b) If the financial accounting period of a company is different (e.g. year ending September 2009, December 2009, June 2010, etc.), this has been mentioned accordingly in the individual CSR profile of each company.
3. Sources of information for the Study
a) Information on the 500 companies has been taken from the company’s website and Annual Report.
b) Wherever either or both of the above sources was unavailable or did not contain the required information, other sources have been used. (e.g. website of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs: www.mca.gov.in)
c) Consolidated sales and profits are listed for each company.
d) For each company, a standard form has been filled with details of the company and its CSR activities (The form is at https://www.karmayog.org/csr2010/csrall/)
e) Companies could also fill and submit the CSR form on their own.
f) A form, once filled, is sent by email to the respective company (through the official email IDs provided by the companies themselves) with a request to revert, if desired.
g) New information, corrections, etc.(if any) sent by the company are added to the form, which is then uploaded on the Karmayog website.
4. Rating Criteria
a) Companies are rated from Level 0 to 5 (Level 5 being the highest)
b) The CSR Rating is assigned based on the CSR initiatives of the company for the time period of the study, including a comparison with previous years’ CSR initiatives.
c) Rating is based on “Sufficient, Necessary and Negative Criteria” for different levels
(See Karmayog’s detailed note on Rating Criteria at https://www.karmayog.org/csr2010/csr2010_32806.htm )
d) All companies are informed of the assigned rating and requested to respond with further information or feedback, as necessary.
e) The Karmayog CSR Rating of any company is open to change whenever new information is provided by the company or from any other source.