ESG Reporting in India - A Literature Review

Author(s): Manoj Kumar and Dr. Pooja Lakhanpal

Abstract:

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) has gained prominence in last decade owing to growing expectations of the regulators, investors and other stakeholders. In India, as a step towards ESG reporting, Business Responsibility Reporting (BRR) was introduced in the year 2012 by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which has been upgraded as Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) for making reporting on ESG aspects more comprehensive and quantifiable. In this paper we have studied significance of ESG for businesses, its legal framework in India, the practices being followed by the corporate and growth of ESG Reporting in India. We have identified the origin of term ‘ESG’ and evolution of ESG Reporting in India. PRISMA Framework (Moher et al., 2009) is followed for literature review to gauge the progress made in ESG Reporting in India. We find that (a) there is a move from multiplicity of ESG reporting frameworks to consolidation in the reporting (b) Integrated reporting may be new norm covering both financial and non-financial aspects (c) mandatory reporting on ESG parameters to enhance comparability and reliability of information furnished across companies (d) focus on sectoral reporting rather than a common reporting for all sectors (e) need to align organizational policies to the environmental policies for long term existence of any organization (f) the landscape of ESG research is vast considering diversity in businesses, ecological factors all having implications for company dealings with customers, employees, vendors and other stakeholders.

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Pages: 172-179     |    2 View     |    0 Download