Sustainability reporting practices in India: A study of selected conglomerates

Abstract

The evolutionary trends exhibit journey of companies toward sustainability of the major conglomerates, offering a learning for other smaller companies. This article investigates the sustainability reporting practices of selected Indian conglomerates based on the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) guidelines. The cases have been selected on the basis of data on market capitalization (based on Bombay Stock Exchange database) and number of reporting years (based on GRI Disclosure database). The study reveals characteristics and trends of reporting practices and also traces the path of sustainability journey in terms of evolution and advancement. A comparison of reporting on economic, environmental, and social indicators has been made and the results of the cases have also been also presented in a cumulative manner. The study opens new vistas for further researchers in understanding the process of sustainability reporting in India and is also helpful for practitioners foraying into writing sustainability reports.to sustainability in the Indian context and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Section 3 highlights the objectives and methodology of the study. Section 4 presents the evolutionary patterns and profiling of the companies followed by analysis of the indicators in section 5.Section 6 provides conclusions drawn out the study. Finally, the article ends with the discussion regarding the limitations and outline areas for future studies in section 7.

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