Research Summary on ESG Policies and Regulations - India

Research Summary on ESG Policies and Regulations

India

India's ESG policy is still in its very early stage. Since the first incorporation of ESG into CSR disclosure policy in 2011, India has revised their disclosure framework, disclosure requirements and disclosure subjects multiple times, expecting to guide the market to pay attention to ESG with the help of policy means.

With the improvement of ESG information disclosure and the increase in enterprises fulfilling social responsibility, various kinds of sustainable financial products have emerged in the Indian market in recent five years, including green bonds, development impact bonds and SDG bonds. Although these products started late and only in small in scale, they are diversified in types, which helps to solve many sustainable development problems in India.

As one of the largest emerging market countries in the world, India's poor performance in many indicators of social, environmental and economic sustainable development greatly affects its sustainable development potential, and highlights the urgency and necessity of the government to implement ESG related policies.

Generally speaking, India's ESG policies and regulations have the following marks:

1. Optimize ESG disclosure framework and clarify corporate socialresponsibility

2. Policy supervision driving enterprises to take the lead in disclosing ESG information

3. Pay attention to the supervision and authorization of ESG implementation by the board of directors

4. To force enterprises to make actual social contributions by means of legislation

5. Diversified sustainable financial products cannot change the huge gap within market place

Read the full article in Chinese