FY 2025-26 marked the first year BRSR Core assurance was mandatory for India’s top 150 listed companies under SEBI’s phased implementation. As filings complete and assurance reports are submitted alongside annual reports, clear patterns have emerged in the quality gaps, data governance challenges, and non-conformances that practitioners encountered.
The most common issues include incomplete Scope 3 emissions inventories, inconsistent employee and worker metrics across business units, energy consumption data that cannot be reconciled with utility records, and sustainability governance disclosures that lack board-level specificity. These are not mere formatting problems — they reflect underlying weaknesses in ESG data collection systems and internal controls.
With the next wave of 500+ companies now preparing for mandatory BRSR Core assurance in FY 2026-27, the lessons from this first cycle are directly relevant. Companies that invest in data governance, cross-functional ESG committees, and early engagement with assurance providers will avoid the compliance scramble that characterised many first-cycle filings.
RSustain, as an AA1000-licensed assurance provider, has published a detailed analysis of common non-conformances and practical remediation steps on our India advisory platform.