The 6^th National Management Convention on “Corporate Social Responsibility in India: Taking the Next Leap Forward” was inaugurated at the School of Management, KIIT University on the 22^nd February, 2013. The annual national-level convention on management research, spread over two days, would witness more than fifty research papers, case studies, white papers being presented by academicians and management practitioners from across the country.

Amid the twin contradictory phenomena of opening up of the Indian industry and increasing resistance of Industries in many parts of the country, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) remains high on the agenda of the Indian Corporate. The Convention aims to capture the issues and challenges in addressing the inherent paradox of sustaining performance and integrity in CSR activities in India.

In his welcome address Dr. Achyuta Samanta, Hon’ble Founder KIIT & KISS spoke about the prevalence of CSR since the ancient times. Dr. Samanta has himself set a landmark in corporate social responsibility by his unique and noble initiative of educating and giving livelihood to twenty thousand tribal children through Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences. He praised the staff of KIIT University for donating 3% of their gross salary to KISS.

The Dean of the school, Dr. Ashok Sar, introduced the theme of the convention.

Prof. C. V. Baxi, Professor in Public Policy and Governance, MDI Gurgaon, in his key note address defined CSR as creating durable long term value and to create and recreate moments of excellence. He shared three basic concerns of corporate social responsibility. The first being the agenda of CSR, the second, the issues and agenda implementation and the third, identifying and defining the problem. He also talked about some of the misconceptions about CSR and said it is not limited to writing few reports or setting a department or allocating some funds to CSR activities.

Mr. Nikhil Pant, Chief Programme Officer, NFCSR, IICA in his address talked about the new Company Bill 2011. Part of the bill says every company must have a CSR Committee of the Board with at least three board members that will frame CSR policies for the activities to be undertaken by the company, the expenditure to be incurred. He talked about the importance of having CSR training, certified professionals and developing data bank. He concluded by laying emphasis on larger alignment of CSR and sharing of resources.