ABSTRACT
The Medium, small and micro enterprise (MSME) sector in India continues to demonstrate remarkable resilience in the face of trailing global and domestic economic circumstances. In the case of MSMEs the borderland of responsible practices is further constrained because they not only operate along the regulatory border but also are extensively implicated in global value chains. MSMEs in different sectors driven by purchasing pressures and practices of MNCs are engaged in a global race to the bottom competing against each other from within the sector and across sectors from different countries. Faced with the prospect of loss of business, Indian MSMEs started complying with these buyer CSR codes thereby bringing in modern code compliance CSR into MSMEs. Code approach is the second and more popular variety of CSR. Labour codes of conduct is the primary mode of CSR in most export-oriented MSMEs like garments, textiles, leather and sporting goods.
