The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has notified the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Amendment Rules, 2020, which shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.
A new proviso has been added in Rule 2 (1)(e), to provided that any Company engaged in research and development activity of new vaccine, drugs and medical devices in their normal course of business may undertake research and development activity of new vaccine, drugs and medical devices related to COVID-19 for financial years 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 subject to the conditions that such research and development activities shall be carried out in collaboration with any of the institutes or organisations mentioned in item (ix) of Schedule VII to the Act and details of such activity shall be disclosed separately in the Annual Report on CSR included in the Board’s Report. Further, to pave way for the said proviso, in Rule 4(1) the words, excluding activities undertaken in pursuance of its normal course of business have been deleted.
