MCA Secretary, Rajesh Verma Released Report of the Committee on Business Responsibility Reporting (BRR)

On August 11, 2020, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), Rajesh Verma released the “Report of the Committee on Business Responsibility Reporting (BRR)” from New Delhi which has recommended a new reporting framework called as ”Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR)” as the demand for non-financial reporting is growing due to increase trends of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investing.

• It should be noted that the 8-member committee, chaired by Gyaneshwar Kumar Singh, Joint Secretary, MCA was formulated by Injeti Srinivas, Secretary, MCA. Injeti Srinivas retired on May 31, 2020.

Key Recommendations:

-The panel has recommended two formats for disclosures viz. ‘comprehensive format’ and ‘Lite version’.Smaller unlisted companies may adopt a lite version of the format, on a voluntary basis. 

-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.

Background:

To update the NGRBC (National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct) released in March 2019 as a guidelines to ensure responsible business conduct by companies, the MCA had constituted a ‘Committee on Business Responsibility Reporting’ to develop new BRR formats for listed and unlisted companies.

Other Participants during BRR Report Release: 

• Dr. Sameer Sharma- Director General (DG) Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA)
• Amarjeet Singh- Executive Director, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)
• Atul Gupta- President, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)
• Ashish Garg- President, Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI)
• R. Mukundan- Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Tata Chemicals
• There were also representatives from Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), ASSOCHAM (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) and individuals from business, academia and civil society organisations.

Recent Related News:

On May 08, 2020, Nirmala Sitaraman launched INR-USD (Rupee-Dollar) Futures and Options contracts on two international exchanges namely BSE’s India INX and NSE’s NSE-IFSC at the International Financial Services Center (IFSC) of Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) in Gandhinagar through a video conference.

About Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA):
Union Minister– Nirmala Sitharaman
Minister of State (MoS)– Anurag Singh Thakur