With the new Companies Act, 2013, making it mandatory for all the companies with a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or net profit of Rs 5 crore or more to earmark 2 per cent of their net profit for the preceding three years on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the state may finally find big companies and multi-national companies (MNCs) to invest in socially useful activities. Though the grant of the 2003 Central industrial package had seen the advent of various MNCs and big firms like Colgate Palmolive, Mankind, Torque, Cipla, Torrent, Indo Farm, Indorama, etc, in the state, their spending on the CSR appeared to be much less than the desired level. However, apart from holding small health check-ups and undertaking cursory sapling plantation in the vicinity, the bigger firms failed to invest much in CSR activities in the state. It was also observed that the bigger companies which had units in several states often showed their CSR activities in other states to claim credit. The bigger companies not only desisted from making public what activities were undertaken by them in their Himachal units, but also their corporate offices deployed public relation agencies to show bigger claims than the actual work undertaken by the units in Himachal. The new Act will now make it mandatory for these big units to not only establish a CSR fund but also undertake activities which will make them spend 2 per cent of their profits. There were some smaller units which were undertaking exemplary work as CSR on voluntarily basis. This fact was illustrated by a Baddi-based electronics manufacturing unit, Elin Appliances, which had set up a nature park at Jhiri in Mandi district by spending Rs 50 lakh and had also bagged various awards at the national level for their outstanding work. An example has also been set up by Ambuja Cements Limited, which has been undertaking variety of activities under the CSR. Elaborating on various activities, Dinesh Sharma, vice-president, Corporate Affairs, said 48 government schools had been adopted where students were being provided various aids. Apart from conducting health check-ups of the villagers routinely, the unit management was also running an NGO which was actively working to control AIDS.