A Study of Business Responsibility Reports of Indian Companies for the Financial Year 2014–15, with Special Reference to Global Reporting Standards

The development that aims at satisfying the needs of present, without hampering the interest of the future generations, is called as Sustainable Development. The concepts of sustainability accounting and reporting have evolved for measuring the sustainable development. They depict how financial frameworks can be extended to social and environmental levels. At present, different ways and mechanisms of reporting are used for presenting this non-financial performance. However, there is no one established framework of reporting. This gives more flexibility to companies. More and more companies are, now, publishing environmental, social and economic performance reports. In India, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has mandated the inclusion of Business Responsibility Reports (BRR) in the Annual Reports of the top 100 companies, by market capitalization. BRR disclosure framework of SEBI is based on the National Voluntary Guidelines. Today, it is found that some of these companies are following the Global Reporting Standards for reporting and others are reporting as per the National Voluntary Guidelines. The present study aims at reviewing the frameworks and guidelines followed by Indian companies for preparing the BRRs, with a view to ascertaining, whether these reports adhere to the global reporting standards, along with the aim of satisfying the informational needs of the stakeholders. This paper is based on the case studies of the BRRs of Indian Companies, for the financial year 2014–2015. The case study reveals that majority of the Indian Companies are preparing sustainability reports as per global standards; however, these reports fall short when it comes to materiality and comparability of the data presented.