BRSR essential and leadership indicators are the two tiers inside each of the nine principle blocks in Section C: essential indicators are mandatory for every in-scope listed entity, while leadership indicators are voluntary and signal advanced responsible-business practice, with around 98 essential and 42 leadership across roughly 140 disclosures.
Two tiers inside every principle
The Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report is arranged in three sections, and Section C, the principle-wise performance block, splits every one of the nine principles that frame the BRSR into two tiers of questions. Essential indicators are mandatory to report; leadership indicators are voluntary and signal a higher, more advanced level of responsible-business practice. Across the whole format there are around 140 disclosure indicators, of which around 98 are essential and around 42 are leadership.
Essential versus leadership at a glance
The distinction runs principle by principle, so an entity can be fully compliant on the essential tier of all nine principles while choosing which leadership indicators to answer.
| Dimension | Essential indicators | Leadership indicators |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Mandatory floor | Voluntary ceiling |
| Purpose | Baseline compliance | Demonstrate maturity |
| Approximate count | Around 98 | Around 42 |
| Applies per principle | All nine principle blocks | All nine principle blocks |
| Feeds BRSR Core assurance | Yes | No |
The nine principle blocks each carry their own essential and leadership questions, for example:
- Principle 1 (Ethics): ethics and anti-corruption data.
- Principle 3 (Employee wellbeing): workforce wellbeing and safety data.
- Principle 6 (Environment): energy, emissions, water, waste and biodiversity data.
- Principle 8 (Inclusive growth): social-impact and inclusive-sourcing data.
- Principle 9 (Consumer value): consumer, product-labelling and data-privacy metrics.
Which tier feeds BRSR Core
The assurable BRSR Core KPIs are drawn from the essential indicators, chiefly under Principle 6, plus Principles 3, 5, 8, 9 and 1, not from the voluntary leadership tier. That makes the essential set the compliance and assurance backbone, while the leadership set stays optional. The ESG guide sets out how these tiers sit within the wider disclosure. Across GreenSutra’s BRSR work, listed entities most often complete the essential tier cleanly yet leave leadership indicators blank without realising those answers are where sector peers signal genuine maturity. Reasonable assurance of the essential-tier BRSR Core KPIs is performed by independent accredited third parties, not by a consultant.
Sources: SEBI BRSR Format (Annexure I) · SEBI BRSR Core, 12 July 2023