BRSR: the sustainability report listed companies file

The Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) is the yearly report on environmental, social and governance performance that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) requires India’s top 1,000 listed companies by market capitalisation to include in their annual reports. It asks how a company performs against nine principles of responsible business, from ethics and the environment to employees, communities and consumers.

SEBI introduced it in May 2021, made it mandatory for those companies from 2022-23, and added BRSR Core, a smaller set of key indicators that must be independently checked, from 2023-24. Investors use it, and so can anyone else: it is public, in every one of those companies’ annual reports.

This guide is for CSR and sustainability teams, NGOs researching companies and anyone curious about how Indian business reports its wider impact. It explains who files, how the report is organised, BRSR Core and value chain disclosures, where CSR appears, and what the report can and can’t tell you.

What the BRSR is

SEBI introduced the BRSR by a circular of 10 May 2021. It was voluntary for 2021-22 and became mandatory from 2022-23 under the proviso to regulation 34(2)(f) of SEBI’s Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR) Regulations, 2015. It replaced the older Business Responsibility Report, which was discontinued after 2021-22. The format was revised for disclosures from 2023-24 by a circular of 12 July 2023, which also created BRSR Core.

SEBI’s own explanation is that investors and other stakeholders increasingly want businesses to be responsible and sustainable, so that reporting on sustainability has become as vital as reporting on financial performance. It describes the BRSR as aiming at quantitative, standardised disclosures that can be compared across companies, sectors and years. Companies that already report under international frameworks, such as GRI, SASB, TCFD or Integrated Reporting, may cross-reference those disclosures.

The BRSR is a disclosure, not a rating or a judgement. A company that files one has reported; it hasn’t been certified as responsible.

Who must file it

This is a different test from CSR. A company is covered by Section 135 if it meets a profit, turnover or net worth test, listed or not. The BRSR applies by stock market size. A large unlisted company may spend crores on CSR and never file a BRSR, while a listed company’s BRSR covers far more than its CSR. See CSR, philanthropy, ESG and sustainability.

How the report is organised

The format has three sections:

• Section A, general disclosures: the company’s details, products and operations, employees, holding and subsidiary companies, CSR details, and complaints.
• Section B, management and process disclosures: the policies, governance and processes the company has for each principle.
• Section C, principle-wise performance: questions under each of the nine principles.

Under each principle, essential indicators are mandatory and leadership indicators are voluntary, though SEBI says companies should endeavour to report them too. SEBI also publishes a guidance note explaining what each question means.

The nine principles

The principles come from the National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC), issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in 2019 to replace the National Voluntary Guidelines of 2011. In the BRSR’s words, businesses should:

BRSR Core, and how it is checked

BRSR Core is a subset of the BRSR: key performance indicators under nine attributes, covering greenhouse gas emissions, water, energy, waste and circularity, employee well-being and safety, gender diversity, inclusive development, fairness with customers and suppliers, and openness of business. Some indicators were chosen for India, such as job creation in small towns, openness of business and gross wages paid to women, and intensity ratios use revenue adjusted for purchasing power parity, so they compare better internationally.

These are the numbers a third party checks. Since a SEBI circular of 28 March 2025, listed companies must get assessment or assurance of BRSR Core; before that, the requirement was reasonable assurance. “Assessment” means a third-party assessment under standards set by the Industry Standards Forum, made up of ASSOCHAM, CII and FICCI under the stock exchanges, in consultation with SEBI. Those standards apply from 2024-25.

The company’s board must make sure the assessor or assurer has the right expertise and no conflict of interest: it mustn’t sell the company or its group other products or services, such as consulting.

Value chain disclosures

A company’s value chain, for the BRSR, means its upstream and downstream partners that individually make up 2% or more of its purchases or sales by value. It may limit the disclosure to partners covering 75% of its purchases and sales.

Since the March 2025 circular, value chain disclosures are voluntary: for the top 250 listed companies from 2025-26, with assessment or assurance voluntary from 2026-27. In the first year of reporting, giving the previous year’s figures is also voluntary. The July 2023 version had planned comply-or-explain value chain reporting from 2024-25; the 2025 change replaced it.

For NGOs working with farmers, artisans or factory workers, this matters: a company that reports on its value chain has more reason to understand conditions among its suppliers.

Where CSR appears in the BRSR

CSR is a small part of the BRSR, in two places.

Section A, item 24 asks whether CSR applies to the company under Section 135 (yes or no), and its turnover and net worth.

Principle 8, “promote inclusive growth and equitable development”, has five mandatory essential indicators: social impact assessments of projects under applicable laws, ongoing rehabilitation and resettlement, how the company handles community grievances, the share of inputs bought from small producers, MSMEs and within India, and wages paid in rural, semi-urban, urban and metropolitan locations. Its six voluntary leadership indicators include two about CSR:

• CSR projects in designated aspirational districts: the state, district and amount spent, using the government’s list of aspirational districts.
• Beneficiaries of each CSR project: the number of people who benefited and the percentage from vulnerable and marginalised groups.

SEBI’s guidance describes vulnerable and marginalised groups as people unable to realise their rights or enjoy opportunities because of adverse circumstances, and lists ways to identify them in India: gender and transgender identity, age, caste and tribe or other identity, occupation (such as displaced people, landless or marginal farmers and migrant workers), disability, and political or religious beliefs.

How NGOs and CSR teams can use the BRSR

For NGOs, a company’s BRSR is a free, detailed profile. Read it alongside the company’s annual report on CSR and its CSR policy:

• Section A tells you whether the company has a CSR obligation at all.
• Principle 8’s leadership answers show whether it works in aspirational districts and how it counts beneficiaries.
• Principle 6 shows its environmental footprint, useful to an environmental NGO looking for a serious partner, and Principles 3 and 5 cover workers and human rights.
• Its value chain answers, where given, show how far it reports on conditions among its suppliers.

Use it to understand a company, not to send it a mass appeal. Our guide to finding the right CSR partner explains how to build a prospect list.

For CSR teams, the voluntary CSR questions are easy to answer well only if partners collect the right data from the start: count each beneficiary once, record with consent whether they belong to a vulnerable or marginalised group, and note which projects are in aspirational districts. The same project register that feeds the annual report on CSR and Form CSR-2 can feed the BRSR, so all three tell the same story.

What the BRSR doesn’t tell you

• Most of it is self-reported. Only BRSR Core must be independently checked, and since 2025 a company may choose assessment under industry standards or assurance. Check which, and by whom.
• Leadership indicators are voluntary, so a blank isn’t necessarily a failing, and a full answer isn’t proof of performance.
• Comparisons are hard across sectors, and sometimes across years as the format changes.
• It isn’t an endorsement. The BRSR shows what a company says about itself in a standard format. Ratings by SEBI-registered ESG rating providers, and the BRSR’s use by ESG mutual funds, are covered in our guide to ESG.

The BRSR’s principles also line up with the Sustainable Development Goals, although it doesn’t ask companies to tag the goals. See CSR and the SDGs.