BRSR Core assessment or assurance: top 1,000 in FY 2026-27

SEBI's glide path for BRSR Core has reached its widest point. For the financial year 2026-27 — the year now under way — the top 1,000 listed companies by market capitalisation must have their BRSR Core disclosures independently checked.^{1 2}

For roughly 500 companies — those ranked 501 to 1,000 — this is the first year their key ESG figures will be examined by someone outside the company.

"Assessment or assurance": the choice SEBI gave

SEBI's circular of 28 March 2025 changed the requirement from "assurance" to "assessment or assurance".¹ A company may choose a third-party assessment, carried out to standards developed by the Industry Standards Forum in consultation with SEBI, instead of a full assurance engagement. Either way, a third party will trace the reported BRSR Core indicators back to evidence.

What will be examined

BRSR Core is a subset of BRSR: a limited set of indicators across nine attributes — including the greenhouse gas, water and energy footprints, circularity (waste), employee wellbeing and safety, gender diversity, inclusive development, fairness with customers and suppliers, and the openness of the business.² Several indicators are intensity ratios, including per rupee of turnover adjusted for purchasing power parity. We explain each attribute in BRSR Core explained, and how to calculate BRSR intensity ratios in a separate guide.

What first-year companies should do now

The year's figures are being recorded as you read this, so the time to put the trail in place is now, not at year end.

1. Know your indicators. Map each BRSR Core indicator to its source data and to the person who owns it.
2. Keep evidence with each figure — the bill, the meter reading, the register — at the time it is recorded, not collected afterwards.
3. Make the review visible. An assessor will ask who entered a figure, who checked it and what changed. Separate the person who enters from the person who approves.
4. Fix the method. Record which emission factors, editions and boundaries you use, and keep them consistent with last year's comparatives — or explain why they changed.
5. Choose and engage the provider early, and agree whether you want an assessment or an assurance engagement.

Our guide Getting ready for BRSR Core assessment or assurance goes through evidence, controls and audit trails in detail, and the free BRSR readiness checklist shows where you stand in a few minutes.

How ESGTrack helps

ESGTrack keeps evidence, review and source with every figure as it is entered, decides from your market-capitalisation rank whether assessment or assurance applies, and prepares an evidence pack for the provider. More on the assurance readiness page.