Section 135, explained.
Section 135 sets CSR spend at 2% of average net profit over the preceding three financial years. Who it applies to, where the money can go, and what a share of it funds in child nutrition.
Start from the number your board already has.
The calculator on the CSR page takes the average net profit of the last three financial years, applies the 2%, and lets you point a share of it at child nutrition. It lives there, one click from the tiers it feeds.
How Section 135 is applied.
The Companies Act, 2013 sets three tests, one basis and one list. This is the short version your finance team will recognise.
Who it applies to
A company that in the preceding financial year had a net worth of ₹500 crore or more, a turnover of ₹1,000 crore or more, or a net profit of ₹5 crore or more.
What counts as net profit
Net profit as computed under Section 198, averaged over the three preceding financial years. That average is the number to put in above.
Where the money can go
The activities listed in Schedule VII. Child nutrition maps to two of them directly: eradicating hunger and malnutrition, and promoting preventive healthcare.
From obligation to children.
One child, one year, ₹2,700 all in. That is the unit every figure on this site is built from, and it is the unit the calculator divides your share by. A ₹50 lakh obligation with 10% pointed here is ₹5 lakh, which keeps 185 children in a programme for a full year. The same 10% of a ₹5 crore obligation funds a whole village cluster.
The tiers on the CSR partnership page are sized to those bands: a proof cohort from ₹2.7 lakh, a measured pilot from ₹5 lakh, and a programme partnership from ₹27 lakh. Each one is a defined cohort, a defined outcome and a number you can put in front of your board, with reporting that follows your financial year rather than ours.
What you get to report.
CSR spend has to stand up to an audit. Every tier closes the year with the documents your compliance team needs.
Impact reports
Children reached, outcomes measured and funds deployed against plan, in numbers your board can read. The cadence is set by the tier, from a year-end report to quarterly.
Fund-utilisation certificate
At year end we issue a CSR fund-utilisation certificate confirming how your contribution was spent, ready for your statutory filing.
Open books on request
Independently audited financials and programme records are available whenever your due-diligence or impact-assessment teams ask.
Indicative, on purpose.
The calculator applies the 2% rate to the number you give it and nothing more. Applicability, the exact Section 198 basis, set-offs and any unspent amount carried forward are your finance team’s call, and we are not your auditor. What we can be precise about is the unit: one child, one year, ₹2,700. The CSR readiness pack puts the registrations, the Schedule VII mapping and the reporting cadence on one page your finance team can print.
Three companies, worked out.
The same 2% applied to three profit figures, with 10% of the obligation pointed at child nutrition at ₹2,700 a child a year.
₹25 crore average profit
Obligation ₹50 lakh. 10% of it is ₹5 lakh: 185 children for a full year, a measured pilot in the tier table.
₹100 crore average profit
Obligation ₹2 crore. 10% of it is ₹20 lakh: 740 children for a year, a pilot at the top of its band with room to become a programme partnership.
₹500 crore average profit
Obligation ₹10 crore. 10% of it is ₹1 crore: 3,703 children for a year, a full programme partnership across village clusters, reported quarterly.
Unspent CSR does not roll over quietly.
Since the 2021 amendment, CSR money that is not spent in the year has a destination. An unspent amount that is not tied to an ongoing project has to be transferred to a fund listed in Schedule VII within six months of the financial year ending. An amount tied to an ongoing project goes into a separate Unspent CSR Account within thirty days of the year end, to be spent within three years.
That is why a defined cohort with a defined timeline matters to a CSR officer as much as to us: a programme partnership is an ongoing project with a start, a cohort size and a reporting cadence, which is exactly what the unspent rules ask you to be able to show. The readiness pack is written so that your finance team can attach it to the file.
Partner with the circle.
Tell us your CSR budget and focus, and we will come back with a costed programme, the compliance pack, and a reporting plan.