OUR SPONSORSSOUTH ASIA
DECENNIAL
CELEBRATION
3rd Nov 2023 | MUMBAI, INDIA
A SOUVENIR ALBUM

THANK YOU!
Thank You Dear Ally
Please accept ourheartfelt appreciationand gratitude forsupporting us over theyears in this battle toseed transparency for
Sustainable Reporting.
And yet again, for yourpresence and yourvaluable insights andinputs at the GRI South
Asia Decennial
Celebration event.
It means the world tous.
We have put together
this Souvenir Album tomark the occasion andare delighted to share itwith you.
We look forward to aneven strongercollaboration for a
successful journey of
Sustainability Reportingahead.
Warm Regards
Team GRI South AsiaNetwork.

To Our Sponsors
Thank you ‘The
Swedish InternationalDevelopment
Cooperation Agency’,
JSW and CEAT forsponsoring this event..
To Our Fellow Warrior
Thank you TEEIDI for
your climate action inthe Darjeeling hills

Dr. Aditi Haldar

Girish Ramachandran

Eelco van der Enden

Dr. Carol Adams

Abanti Sankaranarayana“A transparent economy helps
to exclude free riders.”“If corporations, who can seethat climate change impacts
social, human, capital, andgovernance topics, do nothingto address these topics, thenthat it is malpractice.”“Governance is not only about
how you manage yourorganization, but also how you
want to be perceived bysociety.”“Younger generations will
choose those employers that fit
the best their vision on howsociety and business should bemanaged.”

Dr. Carol Adams, Chair, GRI
Global Sustainability Standards
Board (GSSB) pointed out tothe gathering that the (GRI)
standards are encouraged tofacilitate transparency on whatreally matters - the impact thatthe organisation has onsustainable development.
And to get an accurate
measure she urged'governance oversight' - byincluding sustainability
expertise in the board's skills
matrix. She also suggested thatassurance engagements
include the process ofdetermining the most significant
impacts.

Speaking on “The future wecreate,” Abanti
Sankaranarayana, Chief Group
Public Affairs Officer and Group
Executive Board Member,
Mahindra Group, thanked GRISouth Asia Network and its
team for the partnerships it
fostered over the past 10 years– and not the very least with theMahindra group.

Speaking on “Transparent
Economy for Our SharedPlanet”, Eelco van der Enden,
CEO GRI gave us this list ofquotable quotes on
Sustainability and Sustainable
Reporting.

Her speech had many suchoverarching insights, including
some on enforcement, on how
external assurance helps build
credibility and on the role ofcompanies to educate
customers

OUR ILLUSTRIOUS SPEAKERS

Speaking at the occasion
Dr. Aditi Haldar, Director, GRI
South Asia, observed – “All of us
here today firmly believe thatsustainability reporting canmove not only a business entity,
but also an economy towards
p r o s p e r i t y, b u t w i t hresponsibility.”
She humbly acknowledged thatit took the voluntary effort ofbusiness entities across India,
Sri Lanka, Bangladesh,Pakistan, led GRI to create anunderstanding that
Sustainability and reporting is
pro-business, pro-prosperity andpro-development.
She dedicated the GRI South
Asia Decennial celebrations tothe collaborative journey with all
its stakeholders, committed toshaping a future that isresponsible, inclusive, andprosperous.

Perhaps the best compliment toGRI South Asia's unstinting
efforts came from Girish
Ramachandran, President, Tata
Consultancy Services (TCS)Asia-Pacific, when he said,“We keep the society at thecenter of our business. It is in
this context, that all of our large
companies, follow the GRI
standards.”
He also shared that the Tata
Group - that is committed not
only to reduce its carbon
footprint, but also to make all its
businesses either water neutral
if not water positive, and also tobring 100% circularity in all its
products, and simultaneously
take care of the communities,
and bio-diversity.
These announcements weremusic to the ears of all thesustainability professionals
gathered.

'In the future', she saw India
playing a huge role forsustainable development.
'In the future' for businesses,
she saw sustainability
becoming increasingly
integrated with businessstrategy; of mainstreaming ofsustainability when it rippled out
from the organisation's core toits departments; and finally theneed for transparency inreporting to measureperformance.

GRI SOUTH ASIA NETWORK. SEEDING TRANSPARENCY. 2013 -2023

OUR DISTINGUISHED PANELISTS
Pranjal Sharma

Prabodha Acharya

Raj Mullick

Mahendra Kumar Chouhan

Dr. Aditi Haldar

Economic Analyst, Advisor,and Author

Chief Sustainability Officer,
JSW Group

Controller, RelianceIndustries Ltd.

Vice Chairman,
Asian Centre For Corporate
Governance & Sustainability

Director, GRI South Asia

Discussion Highlights of Symposium on 'Transparent Economy for a Shared Planet'· On Growth Economies vs Legacy Economies- Legacy economies have been carbon dependent.
- Growth economies must innovate to find ways of sustainable growth.
· Transparency: Transparency has evolved from being a choice to becoming a demand for survival.
Factors leading to transparency- A digital infrastructure, and- Increasing involvement of professionals like CAs who today are playing a bigger role in reporting.
Also- Transparency is not just about sharing data but also ensuring its validity and credibility.
·Caring Economy and the Industry- Integration of ESG, SDGs, and technology is the new caring version of industrial revolution.
- Emphasis on the importance of a caring economy that considers people, profit and planet· The Role of business- The fundamental role of business is not only to create wealth but also to address societal problems- Hence to win the trust of stakeholders- GRI standards help to earn trust for organizations by providing guidelines for monitoring anddisclosure.
·Role of the Board in building trust- Value System begins at the top with the Board's value system- Hence the need to also hand pick professional independent directors with vision, integrity, andcourage· In South Asia
South Asian companies are better poised to ride the wave of the 5th Industrial Revolution because
they are looking to innovate.
GRI standards help build trust by providing guidelines for monitoring and disclosure.
· The Native Value System
The Native Value System is Sanskaras. To be observed, felt and imbibed.
Like Niti and Nyay. Where Niti is regulations/frameworks/standards.
But Nyay reflects the truth beyond, in this case of sustainability.

Transparent Economy for a Shared Planet - Discussion Highlights

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been theindustry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type andscrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap intoelectronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the releaseof Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software
like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been theindustry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type andscrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into
electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the releaseof Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software
like Aldus PageMaker
including
Lorem Ipsum.
Raghavan
Nairversions of Madhulika
Prashani Illangasekera
SharmaOUR DISTINGUISHED PANELISTSP S Narayan

Deeksha Vats

Reghu Kumar

Bronte Klein

Nishat Nahrin Hamid

Lorem Ipsumis simply
dummy BSI
text of Vice President and Chief
Chief Sustainability Officer,
HeadSustainability,
Deputy General Manager
Chief of Staff and Head ofMember, SDG Standing
theprinting
andtypesettingindustry.
Aditya Birla Group
Group India
Sustainability Officer, ITCESG, Hayleys GroupNetworks, GRI
Committee, BGMEA
Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's
standard dummy text ever since the1500s, when an unknown printer tooka galley of type and scrambled it tomake a type specimen book. It has
survived not only five centuries, but
Over time· Such multiple standards demand capacity building and interoperability.
also the leap into electronic· Some perceive Sustainability Reporting as - backward-looking, compliance-centric; while others feeltypesetting,15 – 20 years ago reporting was actually used as a strategic
lever remaining
for creatingessentiallythe strategy and theit is forward-looking, value-creating.
unchanged.
It
was popularised in theroadmap for sustainable governance.
· Many important stakeholders don't read the report made with a huge effort.
1960s with the release of Letraset
Since then it has also moved from Voluntary to mandatory.
· Requirement from a report vary – Management needs a two-page summary, investors need a focus
sheetscontainingstatements.
Lorem IpsumUnlike accountants, sustainability reporters don't shunforward-looking
on materiality and risks, while communities want a focus on the impact.
passages,
andmorerecently withSince then, new stakeholders like ESG rating agencies have come into being.
· Similarly it is based on circumstances (what are stake-holders seeking – quantitative/qualitative),desktopbetween
publishing
Reporting is leading to a deeper understanding of trade-offs
E, Ssoftwareand G. likenature of products (like circularity), new focus (like bio-diversity).
Aldus
PageMaker
includingversions
Over time as GRI standards evolved, with first universal and then sector standards following,

Global Head Sustainability &ESG, WIPRO

Discussion Highlights of Dialogue on 'Sustainability Reporting and Its Future for South Asia'··········

Sustainability reporting began to get wider traction..
As materiality came to be understood, environmental concerns started gaining prominence.
After the Paris Agreement, the investors have been driving sustainability reporting.
With multiple stakeholders involved - strategy, risk, opportunity and value creation has led tointegrated reporting.
The ownership of Sustainability Reporting has gone from CSR team to Sustainability team.

Way forward····

Today's Challenges/perceptions·Sustainability is a global challenge, but has localized issues. Therefore, every regulator – EU, or US
or local – are using different standards.

·Increasing trend for customers (like in EU), preferring to do business with companies with higher
ESG rating.
Sustainability reporting is putting the value chains under the radar.
Need for capacity building and frequent oversight at corporate governance level.
A good sustainability report is not targeted at a rating agency. It does not come from a sustainability
team. Instead it is owned across the organization. Which you can tell because it has come from what
has happened and not from what you want to report.
It is a platform for a CEO to communicate - , what it says about the company's strategies to the world
are with respect to sustainability.

Picture Gallery

Picture Gallery