The session is being jointly organized by AIB Sustainability Shared Interest Group and IIM Bangalore

3 December, 2025, Bengaluru: IIM Bangalore will host a webinar on ‘Sustainability and CSR in India’, in collaboration with the Academy of International Business (AIB) Sustainability Shared Interest Group on 12 December 2025, at 16:00 IST. 

India presents one of the world’s most distinctive corporate social responsibility (CSR) landscapes. Mandatory CSR provisions, a swiftly evolving sustainability regulatory framework, and growing alignment with global reporting standards offer rich insights for both scholarship and practice. This session will foreground how Indian firms design and implement CSR initiatives, how institutional contexts shape responsible business conduct, and the research opportunities these dynamics present for scholars of international business and sustainability.

Register for the webinar before 10 December, HERE.

Participants will gain a concise yet comprehensive understanding of India’s CSR landscape and its implications for global business and sustainable development. The event features four research presentations:

1. ‘Dual institutional embeddedness and home country CSR Engagement: Evidence from Indian MNEs’, presented by Prof. Mukundhan K.V., Strategy & Entrepreneurship area, IIM Tiruchirappalli.

2. ‘Strategic CSR Orchestration in Business Groups’, presented by Prof. Sai Chittaranjan Kalubandi, Strategy area, IIM Bangalore.

3. ‘Scaling Sustainable Agriculture Interventions through Equipment Sharing’, presented by Prof. Haritha Saranga, POM area, IIM Bangalore.

4. ‘Symbolic at Home, Substantive Abroad: Environmental Disclosure Strategies of Emerging Market Firms’, presented by Prof. Himanshu Shekhar, Business Strategy area, XLRI Jamshedpur.

Prof. Sandeep Yadav, Sustainability SIG Officer and Professor of Strategy at IIM Bangalore, will facilitate the session. For queries, please contact: sandeep.yadav@iimb.ac.in.

Panellists

Mukundhan KV is an Associate Professor in the Strategy & Entrepreneurship at the Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli, India. His research focuses on strategy and internationalization challenges of emerging market multinational enterprises. His work examines how institutional environments influence EMNE strategic decisions. Recent publications explore topics including patent litigation risks for emerging market MNCs expanding abroad (Journal of World Business), CSR engagement patterns of Indian MNEs navigating dual institutional contexts (Journal of Business Research), and investment decisions in tax havens by Indian firms (Asian Business & Management). Additional research investigates how national innovation systems and stakeholder pressures shape FDI entry mode choices. Prior to joining academia, he worked at Microsoft, Samsung, Ford, and HP Labs in areas related to competitive intelligence and patent strategy. He also engages with practitioners through executive education programs on topics including internationalization strategy and digital transformation.

Sai Chittaranjan Kalubandi is an Assistant Professor in Strategy at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India. His research interests are in corporate governance, nonmarket strategies, and meta-analysis. He studies these issues in the context of international business, strategic CSR, and entrepreneurship. His research has appeared in journals such as Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Journal of Business Research, and Asia Pacific Journal of Management. He is a joint recipient of the Prof. Tirath Gupta Memorial Thesis Award in 2019 for his doctoral thesis titled “Essays on the internal markets of business groups”. Before joining the doctoral programme at IIM Ahmedabad. Sai has presented his research at several international conferences, such as the Strategic Management Society Annual Conference, the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, and the Academy of International Business Annual Meeting. A paper based on his doctoral thesis was shortlisted for the GSJ Best Paper Award at the SMS Special Conference in India.

Haritha Saranga is a Professor of Operations Management at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. She has been awarded the Airbus Endowed Chair and the IIMB Chair of Excellence for her contribution to research and teaching excellence. She currently chairs the Sustainability Taskforce at IIM Bangalore. Her research interests include studying quality, productivity, and sustainability aspects of firms operating in agricultural, automotive, pharmaceutical and healthcare supply chains in India and abroad. She uses both empirical and analytical methods in her research. Haritha Saranga is a Fellow of MIRCE Akademy, Exeter, UK, and a recipient of the T.E. Filbee Research Fellowship. She has published several articles in refereed international journals, such as Production and Operations Management, Journal of International Business Studies, European Journal of Operational Research, MIT Sloan Management Review, International Journal of Production Economics and Journal of Operational Research Society. She also co-authored a book, titled Reliability and Six Sigma, published by Springer and has written many cases and book chapters. She has also written several teaching cases documenting quality, lean, environmental and social sustainability journeys of various Indian and foreign organizations, which have been published in the Harvard Business School Case Portal. She is very passionate about addressing the sustainability and climate crisis-related issues humanity is currently facing. After taking over as Chairperson of the Sustainability Taskforce at IIM Bangalore, she has been spearheading several initiatives within and outside IIMB in a bid to create awareness about the need for change towards sustainable lifestyles, as well as to reduce the carbon footprint of IIM Bangalore and the communities in the neighbourhood. She has also carried out consulting projects and conducted case studies with organizations such as Suzlon, Ace Designers, Akshaya Patra, Bosch, Apollo Hospitals, CII Foundation, and Looms of Ladakh, etc. She has served as a board member on the boards of Cyient DLM Pvt. Ltd, and IIM Bangalore.

Himanshu Shekhar is an Assistant Professor of Business Strategy at XLRI Jamshedpur. He pursues research at the cross-section of innovation, governance and sustainability. Prior to his academic career, he worked extensively in the field of sustainable business, public policy, and information technology. He has authored several white papers and reports on topics like electric mobility, renewable energy, and climate finance. His work has been published in journals such as Technovation. He has a PhD in Strategy from IIM Bangalore, an MBA in Strategy & Finance from XLRI, and an integrated master's in industrial chemistry from IIT Kharagpur.