What is BRSR? SEBI's sustainability report, explained

The Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) is how a listed company in India tells investors and the public what it does about its environmental, social and governance responsibilities — in a format SEBI sets, so that one company's answers can be compared with another's. This guide covers who must file it, what it asks, how it is filed, and what changed in 2025 and 2026.

Who must file a BRSR?

The top 1,000 listed entities by market capitalisation. BRSR comes from Regulation 34(2)(f) of SEBI's Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR) Regulations, and SEBI's circular of 10 May 2021 set it out: voluntary for FY 2021-22, mandatory from FY 2022-23, replacing the older Business Responsibility Report (BRR)¹.

How the top 1,000 are counted changed in 2024. Since 31 December 2024, the ranking uses a company's average market capitalisation from 1 July to 31 December, rather than the value on a single date; the exchanges prepare the list, and a company leaves the obligation only after three consecutive years outside it³. Other listed companies — including those on SME platforms — may file a BRSR voluntarily.

What does a BRSR contain?

The report has three sections. The current format is Annexure 16 of SEBI's master circular for listed entities, last updated on 30 January 2026, with a guidance note in Annexure 17².

The nine principles

Section C follows the nine principles of the National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC), issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in 2019⁶:

1. Ethics, transparency and accountability
2. Goods and services that are sustainable and safe
3. The well-being of employees, including those in the value chain
4. The interests of all stakeholders
5. Human rights
6. Protecting and restoring the environment
7. Responsible and transparent public policy advocacy
8. Inclusive growth and equitable development
9. Responsible engagement with consumers

Each principle has essential indicators, which are mandatory, and leadership indicators, which are voluntary². Principle 6 — the environment — is where energy, water, emissions, waste and biodiversity are reported; Principle 3 holds safety, wellbeing and benefits; Principle 5 holds wages and human rights.

Intensity ratios use PPP-adjusted revenue

From FY 2023-24 the updated format asks for intensity figures — emissions, energy and water per rupee of turnover — on revenue adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), so that Indian companies' intensities can be compared with those of companies elsewhere². The format also has room for intensity in terms of physical output, with the measure chosen by the company.

How is a BRSR filed?

The BRSR is part of the annual report: it may be printed in it or the annual report may link to it. It is then filed with the exchanges in both PDF and XBRL, on the same day as the annual report; the XBRL is usually prepared with the exchanges' BRSR utility⁴. The exchanges' FAQs add four rules worth knowing before filing:

• The XBRL and the PDF must say the same thing.
• An item marked "not applicable" needs its reason — in the PDF and in the XBRL.
• A revised BRSR goes through the same route, "only as a last resort and sparingly", with a covering letter.
• Cross-references to reports under other frameworks (GRI, SASB, TCFD or an integrated report) are allowed.

Our guide to filing BRSR in XBRL goes through the utility and the mistakes that cause trouble.

What is BRSR Core?

BRSR Core is a subset of the BRSR — key indicators under nine attributes, such as the GHG, water and energy footprints, employee safety and gender diversity — that must be independently assessed or assured. It started with the top 150 companies for FY 2023-24 and reaches the top 1,000 for FY 2026-27². It has its own rules and timetable: see BRSR Core explained.

What changed in 2025 and 2026?

• Assessment or assurance. In March 2025 SEBI allowed BRSR Core to be either assured or assessed — the latter under standards from the Industry Standards Forum — and the BRSR now records which, and by whom⁵.
• Value chain disclosures became voluntary. The top 250 may report on value chain partners that are each at least 2% of purchases or sales, from FY 2025-26⁵.
• Green credits. A new voluntary leadership indicator under Principle 6 asks for green credits generated or procured by the company and its top ten value chain partners, from FY 2024-25 disclosures⁵.
• Where the rules sit now. SEBI's master circular for listed entities, last updated on 30 January 2026, holds the BRSR format, the guidance note and the BRSR Core format (Annexures 16, 17 and 17A)².

How do companies prepare a BRSR in practice?

Most of the work is not the writing. It is gathering figures from every site and function — energy and fuel, water, waste, safety, headcount and wages, complaints, policies — and getting each one approved by the person responsible, with its evidence, before the report is assembled. Three habits make the difference:

1. Start from last year's filing. Questions that did not change can carry forward, and the comparatives are already there.
2. Collect monthly, not in March. A figure entered with its bill or log when it happens is easier to approve than one reconstructed at year end.
3. Keep the evidence with the figure. Anyone who has to assess or assure BRSR Core will ask for it — see getting ready for BRSR Core assessment or assurance.

How ESGTrack helps

ESGTrack fills Sections A, B and C from approved data, calculates the BRSR Core KPIs with the evidence behind each one, runs a filing check before you download, and produces the report and its XBRL file for NSE and BSE — with every figure traceable to its source. See BRSR and BRSR Core in ESGTrack.