BRSR Core vs BRSR: What Every Listed Indian Company Must Know About Assurance Requirements
If you are a listed company in India navigating SEBI’s Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) framework, you have likely come across two terms that create significant confusion: BRSR Core and BRSR (the full report). Understanding the difference is not just a compliance exercise — it determines how much assurance you need, who needs to verify your data, and what penalties apply if you get it wrong.
What is BRSR?
BRSR is SEBI’s mandatory sustainability disclosure framework, applicable to the Top 1000 listed companies by market capitalisation from FY 2022-23. It replaced the earlier Business Responsibility Report (BRR) and aligns broadly with global ESG frameworks like GRI, TCFD, and the UN SDGs.
The full BRSR covers three principles across nine National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC) principles, requiring companies to disclose data on environmental performance, social indicators, governance practices, supply chain conduct, and stakeholder engagement. It runs to dozens of quantitative and qualitative disclosures across Essential and Leadership indicators.
What is BRSR Core?
BRSR Core is a subset of 9 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) selected from the full BRSR, introduced by SEBI in 2023 with one critical addition: these KPIs require mandatory third-party reasonable assurance.
The 9 BRSR Core KPIs cover:
- Intensity of GHG emissions (Scope 1 + 2 per rupee of turnover)
- Intensity of energy consumption per rupee of turnover
- Water consumption intensity
- Waste generated intensity
- Number of value chain partners covered under sustainability assessments
- Details of corrective actions taken on value chain partners
- Median wages — male and female separately
- Return on investment for CSR projects
- Complaints received and resolved on human rights issues
The Critical Difference: Assurance Requirements
This is where most companies get tripped up. The full BRSR requires only self-disclosure — your sustainability team compiles the data, management signs off, and it goes into the Annual Report. No external verification is mandatory (though it is recommended).
BRSR Core is entirely different. SEBI has mandated reasonable assurance — the highest level of third-party verification — for the 9 Core KPIs. This means an accredited assurance provider must independently verify your data, systems, and calculation methodologies before you can publish those numbers.
| Parameter | BRSR (Full) | BRSR Core |
|---|---|---|
| Applicability | Top 1000 listed companies (mandatory FY 2022-23) | Top 150 (FY 2023-24), Top 250 (FY 2024-25), Top 1000 (FY 2026-27) |
| Number of KPIs | 100+ disclosures | 9 specific KPIs |
| Assurance required | Voluntary (recommended) | Mandatory reasonable assurance |
| Who verifies | Internal / self-declared | Accredited third-party assurance provider |
| Penalty for non-compliance | Regulatory action by SEBI | Stricter scrutiny; affects listing obligations |
Phased Rollout — Are You Already Covered?
SEBI has introduced BRSR Core requirements in phases:
- FY 2023-24: Top 150 listed companies — mandatory assurance on BRSR Core KPIs
- FY 2024-25: Top 250 listed companies
- FY 2025-26: Top 500 listed companies
- FY 2026-27: Top 1000 listed companies
If your company falls within the Top 500 by market cap, you are already required to get BRSR Core assurance for FY 2025-26. The clock is running.
What Does Reasonable Assurance Actually Mean for Your GHG Data?
The GHG intensity KPI in BRSR Core is arguably the most technically demanding. To achieve reasonable assurance on this number, your assurance provider will examine:
- Your organisational boundary — which entities and facilities are included
- The emission factors used — IPCC, CEEW, MoEFCC, or supplier-specific
- Your data collection process — utility bills, fuel logs, process records
- Calculation methodology — whether Scope 1 and 2 are correctly separated
- Year-on-year consistency — has the boundary changed? Has a base year restatement been documented?
If your GHG accounting was done informally — spreadsheets without documented assumptions, emission factors pulled from generic sources, no internal review process — a reasonable assurance engagement will uncover these gaps. The result is often a qualified assurance opinion, which is damaging to investor confidence.
How Planetary Plus Helps
At Planetary Plus, we work with Indian manufacturers across cement, steel, textiles, and auto components to build assurance-ready GHG inventories from the ground up. Our approach follows ISO 14064-1 and the GHG Protocol, and we document every assumption, emission factor, and calculation so that when your assurance provider arrives, there are no surprises.
We also conduct pre-assurance readiness reviews — a structured audit of your BRSR Core data before the external assurance engagement begins. This significantly reduces the risk of a qualified opinion and the cost of resubmission.
If you are in the Top 1000 and need to understand your BRSR Core obligations — or if your assurance engagement is coming up and you are not confident in your data — get in touch with us for a no-obligation consultation.