Concept Guide
ESG: the core ideas
ESG looks at environmental, social and governance issues that can change a company's cash flows, risks and cost of capital. The core ideas, the Indian rules, and the limits of ESG data.
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ESG and sustainable finance
ESG fundamentals, reporting, carbon, green bonds, and climate risk.
90 guides. Read in order, or jump to what you need.
Concept Guide
ESG, CSR, sustainability and impact: four different things
ESG, CSR, sustainability and impact are often used as if they mean the same thing. They do not. The four terms, who uses each, and how to tell them apart in an annual report.
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Concept Guide
Materiality: financial, impact, double and dynamic
Materiality decides which ESG issues matter for a company. The four types of materiality, how a materiality assessment works, and how to read one in an annual report.
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Concept Guide
The global climate framework: UNFCCC, Paris Agreement, NDCs and COPs
How the world agrees on climate action. The UN Framework Convention, the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement, national climate plans (NDCs) and the yearly COP meetings, and why they matter to investors.
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Concept Guide
India's climate commitments: Panchamrit, NDCs and net zero by 2070
India's climate targets, from the Panchamrit goals announced at COP26 to the 2035 NDC submitted in 2026. What India has promised, what it has achieved, and what it means for Indian companies.
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Concept Guide
The UN Sustainable Development Goals
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are the world's shared to-do list for 2030. The goals, how companies and investors use them, and how to spot SDG-washing.
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Concept Guide
Greenwashing and its relatives
Greenwashing means making a company or product look better for the environment than it really is. The common forms, India's rules against it, its relatives (greenhushing, social washing, impact washing) and a red flag checklist.
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Concept Guide
The ESG debate: the case for and the case against
ESG has strong supporters and strong critics. The best arguments on both sides, the recent backlash, and a practical position for analysts that does not depend on which side wins.
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Concept Guide
Stakeholders and stakeholder mapping
Stakeholders are the people and groups who affect or are affected by a company. The main stakeholder groups, two simple mapping tools, and how stakeholder issues turn into financial risk.
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Concept Guide
GHG accounting: Scopes 1, 2 and 3
Carbon accounting measures a company's greenhouse gas emissions. The three scopes, the intensity metrics, India's new carbon market, and the traps in reading emissions data.
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Concept Guide
Scope 3 in practice: the 15 categories
For many companies, Scope 3 is most of their carbon footprint. The 15 categories, which ones matter in which sectors, how companies estimate them, and how to judge the quality of a Scope 3 figure.
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Concept Guide
Net zero targets and science-based targets
Many companies have announced net zero targets. Few are equally credible. How science-based targets work, what changed in the SBTi's 2026 standard, and a checklist for testing any climate target.
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Concept Guide
Carbon pricing: carbon taxes, cap-and-trade and baseline-and-credit
Carbon pricing turns emissions into a cost. The three main designs, how each one affects a company's profit and loss, where carbon pricing stands worldwide, and how India's system fits in.
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Concept Guide
Carbon credits and offsets: the quality tests
A carbon credit is supposed to stand for one tonne of emissions cut or removed. Many do not. The types of credits, the quality tests, the integrity bodies, and India's own offset and Article 6 routes.
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Concept Guide
India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme
India's first compliance carbon market sets binding emission intensity targets for large plants in energy-intensive sectors. How it works, who runs it, which sectors are in, the timeline to the first trades, and how to model it.
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Concept Guide
The PAT scheme and the shift to CCTS
Perform, Achieve and Trade was India's market-based energy efficiency scheme for heavy industry from 2012. How it worked, what it achieved, and how it is giving way to the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme.
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Concept Guide
EU CBAM and Indian exporters
The EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism charges importers for the carbon in steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen. How it works from 2026, what it costs, and what it means for Indian exporters.
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Concept Guide
Climate risk and stranded assets
Climate change creates two kinds of financial risk: physical damage from a changing climate, and the costs of moving to a low-carbon economy. The risk types, stranded asset analysis, and the Indian context.
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Concept Guide
Climate scenario analysis
Scenario analysis tests how a company would fare under different climate futures. The main scenario sets (NGFS, IEA, IPCC), a six-step method, and how to judge the quality of a company's scenario disclosures.
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Concept Guide
Energy disclosure: renewables, RPOs and certificates
Energy is the largest source of emissions for most companies and a direct cost. How to read energy data, the ways Indian companies buy renewable power, India's renewable consumption obligation, and the coming changes to Scope 2 rules.
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Concept Guide
Water, waste and extended producer responsibility
Water shortages can stop production, and India's waste rules now make producers pay for what happens to their products. Water metrics, waste metrics, India's EPR regimes for plastic, e-waste, batteries, tyres, oil and vehicles, and what to look for.
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Concept Guide
Nature and biodiversity risk
Businesses depend on nature for water, raw materials and stable land, and many harm it. Dependencies and impacts, the main drivers of nature loss, India's rules, the global frameworks, and how analysts can assess nature risk.
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Concept Guide
The social pillar: an analyst's view
The "S" in ESG is about people: workers, workers in the supply chain, local communities and customers. The four stakeholder groups, how social issues reach the financials, the social data in the BRSR, and the Indian features that make the S pillar different.
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Concept Guide
Workforce metrics: safety, turnover, diversity and pay
The core numbers for judging how a company treats its people: LTIFR, TRIR and fatalities for safety; turnover; women's share of the workforce and of wages; the gender pay gap; and training. How each is calculated, where it sits in the BRSR, and how to read it.
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Concept Guide
India's four labour codes
Four labour codes replaced 29 central labour laws, with key provisions in force from 21 November 2025. The new wage definition, gratuity for fixed-term staff, social security for gig workers, the higher layoff threshold, the state gig worker laws, and the costs companies have already booked.
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Concept Guide
Human rights and supply chain due diligence
Companies are expected to respect human rights in their own operations and their supply chains. The UN Guiding Principles, the four steps of due diligence, forced and child labour risks, the limits of supplier audits, the EU due diligence law after the 2026 changes, and the lessons of Rana Plaza.
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Concept Guide
Data privacy and the DPDP Act
India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 and the Rules notified on 14 November 2025. Who is a data fiduciary, the core duties, the 18-month phase-in, penalties of up to ₹250 crore, and how to judge a company's data privacy risk from its disclosures.
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Concept Guide
Communities, land and the social licence to operate
A mine, plant or dam needs more than legal permits: it needs the acceptance of the people around it. India's land acquisition and forest rights laws, free, prior and informed consent, the Niyamgiri and Sterlite examples, and the signs that a project's social licence is weak.
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Concept Guide
Corporate governance in India: the legal framework
The laws, regulators and codes that decide how Indian listed companies are run, how the rules grew after each scandal, and the main conflict that Indian governance is built to manage.
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Concept Guide
Board structure and committees
The rules on board size, independence and meetings, the five main board committees, and how to read a board's real structure from the annual report.
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Concept Guide
Independent directors: the rules and the real test
The legal test for independence, the rules on tenure, appointment and resignation, and an eight-point checklist for judging whether a board's independent directors are really independent.
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Concept Guide
Promoter holding and pledging
The signals in promoter holding, the mechanics of share pledging, the SEBI disclosure rules, and the red flags that point to forced selling or a change in control.
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Concept Guide
Related-party transactions and the 2025 thresholds
How related-party deals are defined and approved, SEBI's new turnover-based thresholds, a five-step method for reading the related-party note, and the red flags that point to value leakage.
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Concept Guide
Audit opinions and auditor resignations
Qualified opinions, emphasis of matter paragraphs and mid-term auditor exits are among the earliest public warnings of trouble. The opinion types, SEBI's resignation rules, and a red flag checklist.
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Concept Guide
Executive pay, ESOPs and ESG-linked pay
The legal limits on managerial pay in India, the special votes needed for high promoter pay, how ESOPs work and dilute, and how to judge whether pay is linked to performance.
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Concept Guide
Shareholder rights, voting and proxy advisors
The rights that minority shareholders have in India, which decisions need a special vote, how e-voting results reveal what investors think, and the role of proxy advisors.
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Concept Guide
Stewardship codes in India
Stewardship codes ask mutual funds, insurers and pension funds to act as responsible owners of the companies they invest in. SEBI's six principles, the other Indian codes, and how to read a fund's voting record.
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Concept Guide
CSR under Section 135
India is one of the few countries that makes companies spend on CSR by law. Who must spend, how much, on what, what happens to unspent money, and how analysts should read CSR disclosures.
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Concept Guide
Ethics and integrity: anti-bribery, whistleblowers and insider trading
The rules on bribery, whistleblowing, insider trading and material event disclosure that shape corporate integrity in India, and the signals analysts can find in filings.
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Concept Guide
The reporting landscape: fitting the frameworks together
Companies report on ESG under several frameworks at once. A map of BRSR, BRSR Core, ISSB, GRI, SASB, TCFD, CDP and the EU rules, and how they connect.
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Concept Guide
NGRBC: the nine principles behind BRSR
The National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct set out nine principles for Indian businesses. Every BRSR is organised around them. The nine principles, what each one covers, and the indicators companies report under each.
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Concept Guide
BRSR: a section-by-section guide
The Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report is India's main ESG filing. Its history, its three sections, what each section asks for, and where the most useful numbers sit.
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Concept Guide
BRSR Core: the KPIs and assessment or assurance
BRSR Core is the set of key ESG indicators that large Indian listed companies must have independently checked. The nine attributes, the KPIs under each, the glide path, and the 2025 choice between assessment and assurance.
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Concept Guide
Value chain disclosures under BRSR
Many ESG risks sit with a company's suppliers and customers. SEBI's rules on value chain ESG disclosures, how they were eased in 2025, and how to read what companies report.
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Concept Guide
Reading a BRSR: an analyst's checklist
A BRSR can run to dozens of pages. A twelve-step checklist for reading one quickly, the cross-checks against the financial statements, and the red flags worth noting.
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Concept Guide
ISSB: IFRS S1 and IFRS S2
The ISSB's two standards are becoming the global baseline for sustainability reporting to investors. What IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 require, the December 2025 amendments, adoption around the world, and India's position.
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Concept Guide
GRI Standards
The GRI Standards are the most widely used framework for sustainability reporting. How they are organised, the new climate, energy and biodiversity standards, and how GRI fits with ISSB and BRSR.
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Concept Guide
SASB Standards and industry materiality
The SASB Standards list the sustainability topics most likely to matter financially in each of 77 industries. How they are built, how analysts use them, and the updates under way at the ISSB.
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Concept Guide
TCFD and TNFD
TCFD created the four-pillar structure now used for climate reporting worldwide. TNFD applies the same idea to nature. Their recommendations, the LEAP approach, and how both now feed into ISSB.
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Concept Guide
The EU rules: CSRD, ESRS, EU Taxonomy and SFDR
The EU's sustainability rules reach Indian companies through EU subsidiaries, EU customers and EU investors. The CSRD after the 2026 Omnibus cuts, the simplified ESRS, the EU Taxonomy and the proposed SFDR overhaul.
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Concept Guide
Sustainability assurance: limited vs reasonable
Assurance makes ESG numbers more reliable, but not all assurance is equal. Limited and reasonable assurance, the standards used in India and abroad, ICAI's new SSA 5000, and how to read an assurance statement.
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Concept Guide
Climate disclosure for banks and NBFCs (RBI)
For banks and NBFCs, climate risk sits mainly in the loan book. RBI's path from its 2022 discussion paper to the 2024 draft disclosure framework and the 2025 climate finance Directions, and what analysts can use today.
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Concept Guide
ESG ratings, ESG scores and ESG risk ratings
Three products with similar names that measure different things. Industry-relative ratings, absolute risk ratings and broad scores, the steps in building a rating, SEBI's six rating products, and a checklist for reading a rating report.
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Concept Guide
Rating divergence: two raters, two answers
ESG raters often disagree about the same company. The research on how much and why, the three sources of disagreement (scope, measurement and weight), the problem of rewritten history, SEBI's attempt to narrow the gap, and how to use ratings that disagree.
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Concept Guide
SEBI's rules for ESG rating providers
India was one of the first countries to regulate ESG raters. The 2023 rules, who must register, Category I and II providers, the six rating products, India-specific parameters, issuer-pays and subscriber-pays models, the 19 registered providers, and how India compares with the EU and UK.
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Concept Guide
ESG data: sources, gaps and quality problems
Every ESG rating, fund and model rests on data. The main sources of ESG data on Indian companies, the common quality problems (boundaries, estimates, lags, restatements, size bias), the global data providers, and a checklist for testing a figure before you use it.
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Concept Guide
Controversies and ESG event risk
Accidents, protests, regulatory action and fraud allegations can hit a company far faster than any rating changes. How controversy scores work, four Indian examples, the gap between allegations and findings, and a simple way to build event risk into a valuation.
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Concept Guide
ESG indices in India
The ESG indices that Indian ESG funds and index funds track: Nifty100 ESG, Nifty100 Enhanced ESG, Nifty100 ESG Sector Leaders, BSE 100 ESG, and the global Dow Jones Best-in-Class (formerly DJSI) indices. Their rules, exclusions and weighting, and the checks to run before using one.
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Concept Guide
The sustainable debt market: labels, structures and size
Green, social, sustainability, sustainability-linked and transition bonds and loans on one map. The two basic designs, the standard behind each label, the size of the market worldwide and in India, and the checks that apply to every label.
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Concept Guide
Green bonds
A green bond is a normal bond whose money must go to defined green projects. ICMA's principles, SEBI's rules, India's sovereign green bonds and the greenium.
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Concept Guide
Social and sustainability bonds
Social bonds fund projects that help defined groups of people. Sustainability bonds fund a mix of green and social projects. ICMA's principles, the six project categories, target populations, SEBI's 2025 rules and how to test social impact claims.
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Concept Guide
Sustainability-linked bonds and loans
Sustainability-linked bonds can fund anything, but their terms change if the issuer misses its sustainability targets. KPIs, targets, coupon step-ups, SEBI's 2025 framework, and the questions to ask.
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Concept Guide
Transition finance
Money that helps high-emitting companies cut their emissions, rather than funding activities that are already green. Transition bonds, SEBI's rules, ICMA's 2025 guidelines, Japan's sovereign transition bonds, India's draft taxonomy, and the tests of a credible transition plan.
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Concept Guide
SEBI's rules for green and ESG debt securities
One map of SEBI's rules for labelled debt: green debt securities and their blue, yellow and transition sub-categories, the greenwashing do's and don'ts, the 2025 framework for social, sustainability and sustainability-linked bonds, and the 2026 rules for independent reviewers.
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Concept Guide
India's sovereign green bonds
The Government of India's green bonds: the 2022 framework, the nine eligible categories, what the money has funded, the auction record from 2023 to 2026, the shift to 30-year bonds, foreign access through GIFT City, and the greenium.
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Concept Guide
The greenium: pricing of green bonds
The greenium is the small yield discount that investors may accept on a green bond. The ways to measure it, the forces that drive it, the evidence from India's sovereign and municipal green bonds, and its real effect on a company's cost of capital.
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Concept Guide
Green deposits and green lending (RBI rules)
RBI's rules for green deposits: what banks can and cannot promise depositors, where the money may go, the excluded activities, third-party verification and impact reports, and how to read a bank's green deposit disclosures.
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Concept Guide
Climate risk in banks and NBFCs
How floods, heatwaves and carbon policy reach a lender's balance sheet. Financed emissions and the PCAF standard, RBI's 2022 pilot climate stress test, global rules for banks, and a checklist for analysing an Indian lender.
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Concept Guide
Climate finance taxonomies and India's draft taxonomy
A taxonomy is an official rulebook of which activities count as green or as transition. The EU model, India's May 2025 draft (its categories, eight principles and first sectors), where it stands in 2026, and the interim lists that banks and bond issuers use in the meantime.
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Concept Guide
Blended finance and concessional capital
Blended finance uses public or philanthropic money to take extra risk so that private investors will fund projects they would otherwise avoid. The main tools, the size of the market, India's viability gap funding schemes, and the questions to ask about a blended deal.
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Concept Guide
The responsible investing spectrum: from exclusion to impact
"Responsible investing" covers very different approaches, from simply avoiding tobacco to funding projects for measurable social change. The full spectrum, what each approach can and cannot do, and how SEBI's six ESG fund strategies fit onto it.
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Concept Guide
ESG integration in equity research
A six-step process for building ESG into a stock analysis: pick the material issues, gather evidence, link each issue to a line in the model, test it, ask management the right questions and keep monitoring. With an ESG factor log and a worked example.
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Concept Guide
ESG-integrated valuation
ESG-integrated valuation is not a separate method. It means building material ESG factors into the cash flows, discount rate and terminal value of a normal DCF or multiples analysis.
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Concept Guide
Carbon pricing in a DCF: a worked, illustrative model
A step-by-step, made-up cement example that turns an intensity-based carbon scheme like India's CCTS into after-tax cash flows, a present value and a sensitivity table, and then tests whether paying for an emission cut is worth it.
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Concept Guide
Portfolio carbon metrics: WACI and financed emissions
The four standard ways to measure a portfolio's carbon exposure, worked through on a three-stock example: financed emissions, carbon footprint, WACI and forward-looking alignment metrics, plus the EU climate benchmarks and the traps in each number.
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Concept Guide
Impact investing and ESG investing: the difference
ESG investing uses ESG information to manage risk and return. Impact investing sets out to cause a measurable positive change. The definitions, the key differences, investor contribution versus company impact, the size of the market and the signs of impact-washing.
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Concept Guide
Measuring impact: theory of change, five dimensions and IRIS+
The main tools for measuring social and environmental impact: the theory of change, the five dimensions of impact, the GIIN's IRIS+ metrics and the Operating Principles for Impact Management, with a worked example that adjusts results for what would have happened anyway.
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Concept Guide
ESG mutual funds in India: the rules and the label test
SEBI's 2023 rules for ESG mutual fund schemes: the six strategies, the 65% BRSR Core test, naming, voting and assurance duties, the history of flows into Indian ESG funds, and a seven-point test for checking whether a fund lives up to its label.
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Concept Guide
Engagement, voting and divestment
The three tools investors have for changing company behaviour: talking, voting and selling. The research on which ones work, collaborative engagement through Climate Action 100+, the retreat of the net zero alliances since 2025, and Indian examples.
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Concept Guide
India's Social Stock Exchange
The Social Stock Exchange segments of NSE and BSE let non-profits raise donations through listed zero coupon zero principal instruments. The eligibility rules, how a ZCZP issue works, the 2026 changes including the new CSR route, the market's size so far and what donors should check.
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Concept Guide
Sector materiality maps
The ESG issues that matter most differ by industry. A one-page summary of nine Indian sectors, with links to a short map for each: the material issues, how they reach the financials, where to find the data and the Indian rules to know.
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Concept Guide
Sector map: banks and NBFCs
For lenders, the big ESG issues sit in the loan book and in customer data: climate credit risk and financed emissions, data privacy and cyber risk, fair lending and governance. The issues, the data and the RBI and DPDP rules to know.
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Concept Guide
Sector map: IT services
For IT services companies, people and data are the core ESG issues: attracting and keeping talent, protecting client and personal data, and powering offices and data centres with clean energy. The issues, the data and the rules to know.
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Concept Guide
Sector map: cement
Cement is one of the most carbon-intensive industries, and India's carbon market now puts a price on it. Emissions intensity, alternative fuels, dust, mining and safety are the key issues. The data to use and the CCTS and CBAM rules to know.
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Concept Guide
Sector map: steel
Steel faces carbon pressure from three directions: the EU's border tax, India's coming carbon targets and the new Green Steel Taxonomy. Emissions intensity, safety, water and community issues, the data to use and the rules to know.
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Concept Guide
Sector map: power
For power companies, the transition from coal to renewables is the central ESG and business question. Coal dependence, air pollution rules, water, ash and land for renewables, with the data to track and the Indian rules to know.
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Concept Guide
Sector map: oil and gas
Most of an oil company's emissions come from customers burning its fuels, which makes transition strategy the core ESG issue. Scope 3, methane, process safety, carbon targets for refineries and policy risk, with the data to track.
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Concept Guide
Sector map: FMCG
For consumer goods companies, most ESG issues sit in the supply chain and in packaging: plastic EPR, farm sourcing, water and product health. The issues, the data and the rules to know.
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Concept Guide
Sector map: pharmaceuticals
For drug makers, the biggest ESG risks are about product quality and trust: manufacturing compliance, ethical marketing, effluents and access to medicines. The issues, the data and the Indian rules to know, including revised Schedule M and UCPMP 2024.
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Concept Guide
Sector map: automobiles
For carmakers, the biggest emissions come from the vehicles on the road, so fuel efficiency rules and the shift to EVs drive the ESG story. CAFE III, PM E-DRIVE, end-of-life vehicle rules, supply chains and safety, with the data to track.
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