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The Corporate Affairs Ministry (MCA) will work closely with capital markets regulator SEBI for implementation of the ‘Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR)’ framework in the country, its Secretary Rajesh Verma has said.
Releasing the report of the MCA appointed committee on Business Responsibility Reporting (BRR), Verma highlighted that Indian companies are aspiring to have a global foothold and thus they cannot ignore the emerging trend of Corporate Governance, i.e. Responsible Business.
He also urged the professional institutes and business associations to carry out the advocacy campaign for BRSR and capacity building of their respective members.
It may be recalled that MCA had constituted a ‘Committee on Business Responsibility Reporting’ to develop new BRR formats for listed and unlisted companies. The panel comprised of representatives from MCA, SEBI, three professional institutes, and two eminent professionals who had worked on developing the National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBCs).
Highlighting the data and trends on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing globally, Amarjeet Singh, Executive Director, SEBI said that due to increasing trends of ESG investing, the demand for non-financial reporting is also growing and in this respect, the BRSR framework will set the stage for sustainable investing.
Talking about the recent national and international development in the field of Responsible Business, Sameer Sharma, DG, IICA, said that IICA is taking forward the initiative and launching a certificate course on Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) from August 2020.
In its report, the MCA Committee recommended a new reporting framework called as the ‘Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR)’ to reflect better the intent and scope of reporting on non-financial parameters. The committee recommended two formats for disclosures: one ‘comprehensive format’ and the second a ‘Lite version’. The committee further recommended that the implementation of the reporting requirements should be done in a gradual and phased manner. The committee also recommended that the BRSR be integrated with the MCA21 portal. As a long-term measure, the committee envisions that the information captured through BRSR filings be used to develop a Business Responsibility-Sustainability Index for companies.
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