From CSR Claims to Credible Impact: A Conceptual Review of Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in India

The emerging challenge in Indian CSR reporting is not simply the amount of disclosure but whether the available information forms a coherent evidence chain. Companies already operate within a structured environment of Board reporting, Form CSR-2, implementing-agency registration, digital infrastructure and impact assessment. Research and institutional evidence published from 2021 to 2025 likewise emphasise disclosure quality, implementation, governance, impact evidence and assurance. Corporate Social Responsibility Impact Traceability asks whether an external reader can follow a claim from the project to the money, implementing agency, beneficiaries, outcome measure and supporting evidence. The proposed six-dimension framework does not replace statutory reporting or BRSR. Its purpose is to make existing reporting easier to follow, harder to overstate and more useful to Boards, regulators, beneficiaries and other stakeholders. The available Indian evidence shows why the concept matters. References to impact assessment are more common than public access to detailed studies, and stakeholder evidence remains uneven (KPMG, 2024). Digital infrastructure can improve information availability, but project-level credibility still depends on links to underlying evidence. The practical direction is therefore not more pages, but stronger linkage among information already being reported.

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