CSR needs to be an ongoing business: Mukesh Ambani

Even as the debate over mandatory 2 per cent of spending of profits on CSR activities by corporates rages, RIL chairman and India's wealthiest person Mukesh Ambani has suggested taking corporate social responsibility to a new level - Continuous Social Business (CSB).

"The purpose of any business cannot be only profit. Profit for the shareholders is important. But unless entrepreneurs have a larger purpose and businesses that change lives of millions of people, a sustainable business cannot be created," he said at FICCI's annual general meeting in New Delhi yesterday.

"We will have to move from a model of Corporate Social Responsibility to a model of Continuous Social Business through enterprise and entrepreneurship," he said. "For that, we will have to create world class institutions with a soul."

"It is important to get the business of businesses right," he said, adding that the primary responsibility of business is social improvement.

The Parliamentary standing committee on finance has proposed that companies should spend at least 2 per cent of their annual profits on CSR activities, which has been opposed by the industry.

Calling on the government to allocate higher outlays in healthcare and education, Ambani said that spending in healthcare formed only 1 per cent of India's GDP. This needs to grow at least five-folds, he added.