CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY POLICY
A. Context:
Vision is one of the most empowering senses of human body that not only enables a person to work to his or her fullest potential but also is crucial for living a normal life.
Out of the world population of more than 7.4 Billion, nearly 2.5 Billion people suffer from uncorrected refractive errors. It is also found that correction of this error would lead to increase in productivity of working men and women by 34% and workers’ income by 20%. World Health Organization estimated that India loses about USD 37 Billion annually because of uncorrected refractive errors.
In fact, 80% of all visual impairment can be avoided or cured. India being a largely populated country certainly requires attention in this regard. About 495 million Indians require vision correction.
Essilor India Private Limited (Essilor India) envisages, by finding solutions, to bridge gap through its CSR contributions and activities.
B. Objectives & Focus Areas:
Essilor India focuses on undertaking the following activities to ensure compliance with the CSR stipulations under the Act:
(i) Creating Awareness on eye care;
(ii) Support in getting access to eye care services and affordable spectacles for the needy, especially to the rural population;
(iii) Promoting education, including special education and employment enhancing vocation skills especially among children, women, elderly and the differently abled and livelihood enhancement projects.
(iv) Reach over the children, workmen, elderly people and drivers requiring vision correction;
(v) Create an effective and scalable model for addressing eye health including Diabetic Retinopathy in urban slum population;
(vi) To strengthen the availability of eye care services for the low-income group, reducing the occurrence of blindness.
C. Composition of the CSR Committee:
The Board of Directors of Essilor India reconstituted the CSR Committee its Board Meeting held on 30th JUne 2021, with following members:
1. Mr. Narasimhan Narayanan – Member
2. Mr. N.S.Raghavan – Member
3. Mr. Manoj Kumar – Member
In case the amount to be spent on the CSR activities in a financial year by Essilor India is less than Rs. 50,00,000/- (Rupees Fifty Lakh only), then the requirement of constitution of the CSR Committee under the Act is not applicable to Essilor India, and accordingly the functions of the CSR Committee stipulated under the Act shall, in such cases, be discharged by the Board. In such a scenario, the CSR Committee may be dissolved by Essilor India, and the roles and responsibilities of the CSR Committee as stated in Section D (Responsibilities of the CSR Committee) and Section E(Funding, Selection and Monitoring Process) belowwill be undertaken by the Board.
D. Responsibilities of CSR committee:
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To formulate and recommend to the Board, an annual action plan in pursuance of this CSR policy, which shall include: (a) the list of CSR projects or programmes that are approved to be undertaken in areas or subjects specified herein and/or in Schedule VII of the Act; (b) the manner of execution of such projects or programmes as specified in Rule 4(1) of the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014; (c) the modalities of utilisation of funds and implementation schedules for such projects or programmes; (d) monitoring and reporting mechanism for such projects or programmes; and (e) details of need and impact assessment, if any, for the projects undertaken by Essilor India. Provided however, the Board may alter such plan at any time during the financial year, as per the recommendation of its CSR Committee, based on the reasonable justification(s) to that effect;
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To take all required actions for realizing the objectives detailed under the CSR policy;
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To recommend amount of expenditure to be incurred on CSR activities;
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To monitor the execution of CSR policy and activities of the company;
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If applicable, tTo meet,with a quorum of minimum two members, either physically or using video conferencing facility at least once in every six months and review the progress in implementing the CSR activities and take appropriate actions for moving forward.
E. Funding, Selection and Monitoring Process:
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For CSR activities, Essilor India will allocate funds not be less than 2% of the average net profits of last three financial years of the Company, calculated in accordance with CSR provisions under Companies Act 2013.
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Essilor India will undertake its CSR activities that are approved by the CSR Committee, through its implementing agency ‘Essilor Vision Foundation’ or such other entity/organization as approved by the CSR Committee.
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Essilor Vision Foundation shall put forth its proposals on the focused activities to the CSR Committee in the following format:
SL No. CSR project or activity identified Sector in which the Project is covered Projects or programs - Specify the State /UnionTerritory where the Project/ Program was undertaken Projects or programs -Specify the district where projects or
programs was undertakenAmount Outlay (Budget, project or programs
wise (in INR)Amount spent, project or programs
wise (in INR) -
CSR Committee to review the proposals and if thought fit to be sponsored under the aegis of CSR activities of the company, and if such activity may be covered within the allocated CSR funds, advise the company to release funds for the proposed activities in accordance with the suggested timeline.
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Company to comply with the directions given by the CSR Committee.
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Essilor Vision Foundation shall provide periodical report on all funded activities to the CSR Committee at the frequency suggested by the CSR committee in the following format:
S No CSR project or activity identified Sector in which the Project is covered Projects or programs - Specify the
State /Union Territory where the Project/
Program was undertakenProjects or programs -Specify the
district where projects or programs was undertakenAmount Outlay (Budget, project or programs wise (in INR) Amount spent, project or programs wise (in INR) Expenditure on administrative overheads Mode of amount spent Details (name, address and email address) of implementing agency(ies)* -
CSR Committee to monitor the progress of all funded activities of EVF and provide its reports to the Board periodically as directed by the Board.
F. CSR Activities - Restrictions and Limitations:
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The CSR activities shall not be designed to benefit only the employees of the company and their families.
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Implementing Agency shall have an established track records of at least three financial years and mustbe registered with the Central Government by filing requisite forms with the jurisdictionalRegistrar of Companies, with effect from the April 1, 2021, and shall have been allotted a CSR Registration Number.
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Expenditure on administrative overheads including employee cost shall not exceed 5% of the total CSR expenditure of the company in one financial year.
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No contribution to be made directly or indirectly to any political party.
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CSR activities shall not include the activities undertaken in pursuance of (i)the activities undertaken in pursuance of normal course of business of Essilor India, (ii) any activity undertaken by Essilor India outside India except for training of Indian sports personnel representing any State or Union territory at national level or India at international level,(iii) activities supported on sponsorship basis for deriving marketing benefits for its products or services, and (iv) activities carried out for fulfilment of any other statutory obligations under any law in force in India .
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Surplus arising out of the CSR projects or programs or activities shall not form part of the business profit of the company. and shall be ploughed back into the same projects or shall be transferred to the Unspent Corporate Social Responsibility Account and spent in pursuance of CSR policy and annual action plan of Essilor India or transfer such surplus amount to a fund specified in Schedule VII of the Act, within a period of 6 (six) months of the expiry of the concerned financial year. If any amount transferred to Unspent Corporate Social Responsibility Account is not spent within 3 (three) years, then the amount is to be transferred to the fund specified in Schedule VII of the Act.
G. Information dissemination:
The CSR Activities of the Company will be reported as part of the Directors’ Report as per the format provided under the Companies Act 2013 and the policy will be available on its website: www.essilorindia.com