Introduction
On February 20, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Board of India
("SEBI") released a consultation paper
on disclosures, ratings, and investing related to Environmental,
Social, and Governance ("ESG")
parameters for the purpose of seeking comments from the public (the
"Consultation Paper"). According to the
Consultation Paper, SEBI plans to introduce an assurance-driven
reporting regime soon, based on key ESG attributes – referred
to, and appended in Annexure 1 to the Consultation Paper, as
"BRSR Core".
As the name suggests, BRSR Core is intended to represent a
focused subset of the wider Business Responsibility and
Sustainability Reporting ("BRSR")
framework ("BRSR Comprehensive"), which,
in turn, SEBI had introduced almost two years ago (in May 2021)1 as an ESG-based
voluntary disclosure regime in lieu of the erstwhile Business
Responsibility Reporting ("BRR")
paradigm.2 The main motivation
behind introducing the BRSR Comprehensive framework was
