Rajesh Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) released the ‘Report of the Committee on Business Responsibility Reporting (BRR)’ on August 11, 2020 in New Delhi.
The BRR was released in the presence of Dr. Sameer Sharma, DG, IICA; Amarjeet Singh, Executive Director, SEBI; Atul Gupta, president, ICAI: Ashish Garg, president, ICSI and R. Mukundan, CEO, Tata Chemicals, besides representatives from CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM and individuals from business, academia and civil society organisations.
In its Report, the Committee recommended a new reporting framework called as the ‘Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR)’ to better reflect the intent and scope of reporting on non-financial parameters.
While releasing the report, Rajesh Verma, Secretary, MCA, appreciated the efforts of the committee in proposing such a robust reporting framework and said that MCA will work closely with SEBI for its implementation. He also emphasised the fact that Indian companies are aspiring to have 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.
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, Dr. 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.
As a chairman of the Committee on BRR, Gyaneshwar Kumar Singh, Joint Secretary, MCA, highlighted the paradigm shift in the business operations from shareholder’s perspective to stakeholders and importance of non-financial reporting. He also shared the key recommendations of the committee and acknowledge the efforts made by the committee members.
To update and formulate NGRBCs, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs had constituted a ‘Committee on Business Responsibility Reporting’ to develop new BRR formats for listed and unlisted companies. The Committee comprised of representatives from MCA, SEBI, three professional institutes, and two eminent professionals who had worked on developing the NGRBCs.
Also read: What is the background of Business Responsibility Reporting (BRR) in India?
