Cement, Energy and Environment

2004: IFC first urged the incorporation of environmental, social, and governance (ESG), all three factors connecting the finance market. 2005: The United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) was launched. 2006: IFC issued a Policy on Social and Environmental Sustainability. 2008: First investable index featuring companies strongly committed to ESG standards. 2009: The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) issued voluntary guidelines on Corporate Social Responsibility. 2010: ISO 26000-2010 standard developed to assist organizations in contributing to sustainable development. 2010: The Department of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Finance issued CSR guidelines for Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE). 2011: MCA issued the “National Voluntary Guidelines” (NVG) on Social, Environmental and Economic Responsibilities of Business and provided a framework for reporting. 2012: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) mandates the top 100 listed companies by market capitalisation to file a business responsibility report (BRR). 2013: The MSCI ESG Leaders Index was launched. 2014: Companies Act 2013 to spend 2% of their net profit over the preceding three years as CSR. 2015: The UN developed a list of 17 Sustainable Development Goals to structure their ESG approach, 2015: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) included renewable energy and social infrastructure in priority sector lending requirements for banks. 2016: The requirement of filing BRR is extended to the top 500 listed companies by market capitalisation. 2017: A SEBI Circular Advises, that integrated reporting may be adapted voluntarily from FY 2018 by the top 500 companies required to prepare BRR. 2018: SEBI provided Green bond guidelines. 2019: MCA further revised NVGs guidelines to align with SDGs and the ‘Respect’ pillars of the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGP). 2021: ISO 37000-2021 for Governance of Organizations-Guidance. 2021: The business responsibility and sustainability reporting (BRSR) framework is introduced to the top 1000 companies by market capitalisation voluntarily which becomes mandatory from FY 2023. 2023: SEBI introduces BRSR core, which applies to the top 150 listed companies by market capitalisation from FY2024 and allows mutual funds to introduce six new categories under the ESG schemes. increasingly aware of the reputational risk of poor ESG performance. The international rating agencies assess these risks, and Indian companies are driven to improve their sustainability efforts, moving beyond mere compliance to align with global sustainability goals. The sustainability reporting system facilitated and developed by various institutes and organisations chronologically was initiated almost two decades, it’s progress in ESG policy reforms has also been introduced in India over the years mentioned below: 26