Reasonable assurance
A high, but not absolute, level of assurance in which an independent practitioner expresses a positive conclusion. For BRSR Core, SEBI now allows assessment or assurance.
Reasonable assurance is a high, but not absolute, level of assurance. An independent practitioner gathers enough evidence to express a positive conclusion on the information, rather than the more limited statement given in a limited-assurance engagement.
Reasonable assurance and BRSR Core
SEBI’s July 2023 circular set an assurance glide path for BRSR Core, starting with the top 150 listed entities in FY2023-24 and reaching the top 1000 in FY2026-27. It also requires the assurance provider to have no conflict of interest: the provider must not sell products or non-assurance services, including consulting, to the listed entity or its group.
NSE’s May 2024 circular on BRSR filing states that the reasonable assurance certificate must be attached to the filing where applicable.
In March 2025, SEBI changed the requirement to “assessment or assurance”. A company may obtain either:
- assurance, or
- an assessment carried out under standards set by the Industry Standards Forum (ISF), in consultation with SEBI.
The glide path did not change, so from FY2025-26 onwards the requirement is best described as assessment or assurance.
How Sustano fits
Sustano is software only. It does not provide assessment or assurance. Your assessor or assurance provider gets view access to the workspace with its own review stage, the evidence behind each value, the calculation lineage and a hash-chained audit trail they can check with a standalone verifier.
Learn more: Approvals and audit trail for assessors
Related terms
See how a number moves from a plant invoice to a locked disclosure.
Book a demo and we will walk through Sustano with an illustrative dataset: collection, review, lineage and the BRSR report.