BRSR Core: the KPIs that must be assessed or assured.
The nine attributes, who is covered each year, the two routes since March 2025 and the rule on who may check. Sourced from SEBI and NSE circulars and dated.
What BRSR Core is
SEBI introduced BRSR Core in July 2023 as a subset of BRSR: key performance indicators under nine ESG attributes. It includes India-specific KPIs, such as job creation in smaller towns, openness of business and wages paid to women, and intensity per rupee of turnover adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) (SEBI circular 2023/122). The format is Annexure I to that circular (SEBI, Format of BRSR Core), now Annexure 17A of the LODR master circular.
Who is covered: the glide path
SEBI phased BRSR Core in by market capitalisation (SEBI circular 2023/122). The March 2025 circular left the glide path unchanged (SEBI circular 2025/42).
| Financial year | Listed entities covered |
|---|---|
| FY2023-24 | Top 150 listed entities by market capitalisation |
| FY2024-25 | Top 250 |
| FY2025-26 | Top 500 |
| FY2026-27 | Top 1000 |
Applicability is measured on market capitalisation as on 31 March. Once BRSR applies, it continues to apply even if the company later falls below the threshold (NSE circular NSE/CML/2024/11).
Nine attributes, modelled as 32 KPIs in Sustano.
| Attribute | KPIs | Typical source records |
|---|---|---|
| Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions | 3 | Fuel records, electricity bills, refrigerant logs, and the emission factors used. |
| Water | 3 | Meter readings, municipal and tanker bills, discharge records. |
| Energy | 3 | Electricity bills and meter readings, fuel records, and the net calorific values used. |
| Waste and circularity | 5 | Waste manifests by category, recycler and disposal receipts. |
| Employee well-being and safety | 5 | Payroll and HR records, well-being spend, injury registers, hours worked. |
| Gender diversity | 2 | Payroll and headcount by gender, including wages paid to women. |
| Inclusive development | 2 | Wage and procurement records by location. |
| Fairness with customers and suppliers | 2 | Customer data breach records and the customer and supplier records the format names. |
| Openness of business | 7 | Purchase, sales and related-party transaction records. |
KPI counts are those modelled in Sustano's BRSR Core pack. The KPI definitions are set by the BRSR Core format; the source records are common examples, not a SEBI list.
Assessment or assurance
The July 2023 circular set a glide path for assurance. On 28 March 2025, SEBI changed the requirement to assessment or assurance (SEBI circular 2025/42). A company may take either route:
| Route | What the circulars say |
|---|---|
| Assurance | The route set in July 2023. Where applicable, the reasonable assurance certificate is attached to the BRSR filing (NSE circular NSE/CML/2024/11). |
| Assessment | Added in March 2025. Carried out under standards of the Industry Standards Forum (ISF), in consultation with SEBI (SEBI circular 2025/42). |
The conflict-of-interest rule
The rule applies to both routes. The listed company must ensure there is no conflict of interest with its assessment or assurance provider: the provider and its associates may not sell it products or any non-audit, non-assessment or non-assurance service, including consulting, to the company or its group. SEBI set the rule for assurance in circular 2023/122 and extended it to assessment in circular 2025/42 (para 4.2).
Before you appoint anyone, read the March 2025 circular for your route, ask which ISF standards an assessor will apply, and get the provider's independence confirmed in writing. Then prepare the evidence file they will test: our evidence-file checklist sets it out.
Value-chain disclosures
Value-chain partners are those that individually account for 2% or more of purchases or sales, and the disclosure may be limited to 75% coverage. It is voluntary for the top 250 from FY2025-26, and assessment or assurance of it is voluntary from FY2026-27. A company that discloses states the share of its purchases and sales that the disclosed partners cover (SEBI circular 2025/42). For a four-step plan and the supplier tools, see value chain.
How Sustano handles BRSR Core
- Calculates Core KPIs from your data, and shows how each figure was worked out, down to the bill behind it. Carbon accounting
- Checks before you report. Missing evidence, out-of-date emission factors, unit mismatches and unusual values are flagged before they reach the report.
- Prepares the evidence pack. For each attribute: the final figure, how it was calculated, the source values from each plant, the evidence and the approvals. BRSR reporting
- Lets your provider check it. Your assessor gets their own access, and can verify the audit trail independently. For assessors and auditors
BRSR Core: frequently asked questions
We rank close to 1000th. Should we prepare anyway?
Our advice is yes. The data work is the same either way, and rankings move from year to year. Check your position on the exchange’s basis each year and record the check and its date.
When should we start preparing for FY2026-27?
Now, if you have not started. Fix the facility list, boundary and KPI owners and choose your route first, then load the months already past. Our FY2026-27 guide has a month-by-month working plan.
What will our assessor ask to see?
They pick a reported figure and follow it back to its source, so expect questions on the boundary, the calculation, the factors, the documents and who approved each value. Our post "What an assessor will ask for" has the evidence-file checklist.
Preparing for BRSR Core assessment or assurance?
See how a Core KPI moves from a plant invoice to a locked value with its evidence, calculation and approval trail.