From compliance to credibility: A call for strategic action in sustainability reporting (BRSR in India)

Time of India

15-06-2025

Dr. Agyeya Tripathi has completed his Ph.D. and holds a Masters degree in Business Administration and another Masters in Electronics and Communication. He is a national resource person for Financial Inclusion under National Rural Livelihood Mission, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. LESS ... MORE
'BRSR isn't just a format – It's the future of corporate trust'
Let's be honest—when most professionals first glance at the BRSR, it feels like just another reporting requirement. A table to be filled, a deadline to be met, another checkbox on the ever-growing list of compliance mandates. But if you've been anywhere near ESG reporting over the last year, you know BRSR is not just a form. It's a signal. A shift. A quiet but powerful push from SEBI telling us: 'It's time to go deeper.'
And that's exactly the point. BRSR is not where the story ends—it's where the work begins.
Take a recent conversation I had with a sustainability officer at a large listed company. She showed me a beautifully populated BRSR report. Every field was filled. Every metric reported. But when I asked, 'What's the theory of change behind your CSR initiatives?' there was a pause. It wasn't that they hadn't done anything meaningful—it's that the narrative and the numbers weren't connected. That's where many of us are right now: compliant, but not yet strategic.
Here's what we're all starting to realize—BRSR and Social Impact Assessment are not the same thing. One is a format for disclosing what's been done; the other is a method to evaluate how well and how meaningfully it was done. But they're also not separate. In fact, when done right, they complement each other beautifully. BRSR helps structure and standardize reporting. Impact assessments dig into the soul of that data.
Now, why does all of this matter more than ever?
Because from FY 2023–24 onwards, India's top 150 listed companies are not just expected to report under BRSR Core—they're required to get third-party assurance. That means someone independent has to look at metrics like GHG emissions, wages, water use, gender diversity, and occupational health and safety—and confirm that the numbers are real, accurate, and meaningful. And by FY 2026–27, that assurance won't just be 'limited'—it'll move toward reasonable assurance, the kind of deep audit-like scrutiny that demands solid systems, documentation, and governance.
This is where things get exciting for governance professionals—especially Company Secretaries.
CS professionals are trained to be the bridge between law and practice, boardroom and operations, compliance and conscience. They understand disclosures, risks, documentation, ethics. And in this new world of ESG assurance, those very skills make them natural candidates to coordinate assurance processes, advise on ESG disclosures, build internal systems, or even become social impact assessors themselves—especially with the right upskilling.
And then came the news that took this from important to urgent.
In June 2025, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision announced a global standard: banks around the world, including in India, will now have to disclose climate-related financial risks—aligned with frameworks like TCFD and ISSB (IFRS S2). That means Indian regulators, like the RBI, will soon mandate banks to publish not only their sustainability practices but the actual financial risks they face from climate change—floods, droughts, transition risks, carbon pricing, stranded assets.
Now think about this: banks are already filing BRSR. Soon, they'll need to deepen their disclosures to include climate risk—and these disclosures will require strong assurance and governance. That's not just about sustainability anymore. That's about financial stability.
That's Basel.
This has a ripple effect:
Banks will push ESG and climate risk disclosures down to their borrowers—listed companies, SMEs, large suppliers.
Value chain reporting, currently voluntary under BRSR, may become de facto mandatory.
Assurance becomes critical—not just for compliance, but for investor trust, risk management, and capital access.
And who can step into this expanding gap? Again, Company Secretaries—if they choose to.
With the right skills—understanding ESG frameworks (BRSR Core, GRI, ISSB), assurance standards (ISAE 3000, AA1000AS), and social impact tools (SROI, logic models, stakeholder engagement)—CS professionals can evolve from compliance checkers to strategic advisors, ESG assurance coordinators, or certified impact evaluators. They can serve in companies, with banks, in consulting roles, or even as part of third-party assurance teams.
India may be rolling this out more gradually than the EU, but the direction is unmistakable. The EU's double materiality approach, value chain disclosures, and mandatory assurance under CSRD are already influencing global supply chains. Indian companies that export, partner, or seek foreign capital will need to match those expectations. And that means professionals supporting them—especially CS—need to be future-ready.
If there's one message that cuts through all of this, it's this:
Assurance is no longer just a nice-to-have. It's the new language of credibility.
And if BRSR is the sentence, assurance is the punctuation mark that gives it clarity and power.
So no, BRSR is not just a form. It's not just another compliance task. It's an invitation. To think deeper, report better, govern smarter. And to step into a role that's not only emerging—but essential.
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Views expressed above are the author's own.