Due to the increasing environmental and social concerns worldwide, there has been a major shift in the reporting standards in the last decade. This has created a need to look more closely into the reporting issues to be addressed by a country like India. As part of its efforts to improve the Environment Social and Governance (ESG) disclosures, new criteria for sustainability reporting were introduced by SEBI. These reporting criteria which were to be followed by the Top - 1000 publicly listed companies, were termed as BRSR – “Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting”.
In this paper, the authors present discussions on the background and introduction of BRSR, the parameters of evolution of sustainability reporting from Business Responsibility Reporting (BRR) to BRSR, as well as the enhancements brought in by BRSR. The authors conducted an exploratory study that provides a comprehensive description of BRSR in India along with a critical overview of the various modifications from BRR to BRSR. We examined information disclosed in reports of the Committee on Business Responsibility Reporting, Sustainability Reporting Standards Board (The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India based).
In their pursuit to be ethically, socially and environmentally responsible, the aim of the Indian companies is to reach higher disclosure levels with the BRSR implementation. BRSR seems comprehensive, globally relevant and is based on specific quantifiable metrics. This should help tell the holistic ESG story of each reporting company. While the ‘proof of the pudding is in the eating’, the Indian regulators are taking strong strides toward sustainability.