Value chain disclosures under BRSR

A company's own factories and offices are only part of its ESG footprint. Emissions, labour practices and pollution at suppliers, and the way customers use and dispose of products, can matter just as much. For many businesses, most of their emissions and most of their human rights risk sit in the value chain.

In July 2023, SEBI asked the largest listed companies to report BRSR Core indicators for their main value chain partners. In March 2025, after industry feedback that suppliers, many of them small businesses, could not yet provide reliable data, SEBI made these disclosures voluntary and narrowed who counts as a partner.

For analysts, value chain data is still patchy in India. But where companies report it, it gives a rare view into supply chain risk.

The definition of a value chain partner

Since the March 2025 circular, value chain partners are the company's top upstream (supplier) and downstream (customer) partners that individually make up 2% or more of its purchases or sales by value. Companies that report value chain data must also state what share of their total purchases and sales these partners cover.

Applicability and timeline

• Who: the top 250 listed companies by market capitalisation
• Disclosures: voluntary from FY 2025-26 (they had earlier been planned on a comply-or-explain basis from FY 2024-25)
• Assessment or assurance of value chain data: voluntary from FY 2026-27
• Past data: reporting FY 2024-25 figures is optional

Disclosures covered

Value chain disclosures follow the BRSR Core attributes: emissions, water, energy, waste, safety, gender diversity and the other KPIs, reported separately for upstream and downstream partners.

Green credits

The March 2025 circular also added a leadership indicator under Principle 6 on green credits generated or bought by the company and by its top ten value chain partners, from FY 2024-25.

Other value chain items in the BRSR

Even outside BRSR Core, several BRSR leadership indicators ask about the value chain: the share of value chain partners assessed on health and safety, working conditions, human rights and environmental practices, and on business conduct.