SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING PRACTICES OF CONSTITUENT COMPANIES OF NIFTY 50 AND NIFTY ENERGY INDICES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Sustainability reporting has been widely used to refer to a ‘public report by companies to provide internal and external stakeholders with a picture of the corporate position and activities on economic, environmental and social dimensions’ (WBCSD, 2002). In academic circles, sustainability reporting is often referred to as social reporting, corporate social and environmental reporting (CSER), or environmental reporting, all of which share the same goal and definition: to document an organization's commitment to its stakeholders (Stiller and Daub, 2007). Purpose-Sustainability reporting is a relatively new concept in India. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the various sustainability initiatives taken by the companies included in Nifty Energy and the top 10 constituents of Nifty 50. For this purpose, the study explored various dimensions (environment, governance, social and human rights, and labour relations) of Nifty Energy and the top 10 constituents of Nifty 50. The study also analyzed whether the constituents of Nifty Energy and the top 10 constituents of Nifty 50 follow the global reporting initiative (GRI). The study is also intended to make a comparison of the sustainability reporting of Nifty Energy and the top 10 constituents of Nifty 50 to find which among them and the company contributes the most to achieving ESG goals. Design/ Methodology-The current study made an effort to examine how the existing scholarly literature dealt with the idea of sustainability reporting. The data was collected from sustainability reports, annual reports, integrated annual reports, and business responsibility reports of Nifty Energy and the top 10 constituents of Nifty 50. The content analysis of the reports and the independent sample t-test were the techniques used for the data analysis. Findings-The result of the study indicated that Nifty energy companies are the most active disseminators across all four dimensions of sustainability reporting. When various dimensions of sustainability reports were studied, Tata power co. Ltd had the most compliance. It had a compliance rate of 44 indicators out of 49. It was also found that the global reporting initiative was followed by all the companies included in Nifty Energy and the top constituents of Nifty 50 except HDFC Ltd. The study also gives valuable suggestions to companies, governments, and policymakers on how to improve the present situation and encourage more companies to take a sustainable path.