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- The Legal and Regulatory Impetus Towards ESG in India: Developments and Challenges
The Legal and Regulatory Impetus Towards ESG in India: Developments and Challenges
NUS Law Working Paper No. 2023/003
The goal of this paper is to build upon the transition outlined in the scholarly debates from corporate social responsibility (CSR) to environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters. Although ESG is well-understood to be market-driven, this paper focuses instead on the legal and regulatory measures governing ESG factors in India. It, therefore, examines the developments and challenges surrounding ESG in India along three fronts. First, the paper explores the roles and responsibilities of corporate boards in accounting for ESG factors in their decision-making process. Second, and relatedly, it analyses the obligations of companies to engage in disclosure and reporting on ESG matters. Finally, viewed from the investor perspective, it examines ESG considerations that underpin the shareholder stewardship regime in India. On each of these aspects, the paper first outlines the key developments, and then highlights possible challenges in realising the regulatory goals on the ESG front.