Just like anything else, probably this will also take time to take off in Corporate India.
The Bombay Stock Exchange is planning to evolve a corporate sustainability index which may well be the first such stock market parameter in any Asian market, BSE Managing Director and CEO, Rajnikant Patel, said.
Such an index, he said, existed in Brazil and while that model might be studied but “we may not necessarily follow it,” he told reporters. Mr. Patel was here to participate in a panel discussion on “Are corporate sustainability and social sustainability interdependent,” held under the aegis of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI). The session was moderated by ITC Chairman, Y. C. Deveshwar.
He said the process of assessment was complicated and a robust framework would have to be evolved. It required co-operation from the companies and they would have to volunteer information, he said.
Mr. Patel’s announcement came on the back of a remark made by Mr. Deveshwar that markets have failed to reward companies that were looking at sustainability issues. This comment found its resonance in the observation by speakers like Harshavardhan Neotia, Chairman, Ambuja Realty Development, who said that there was need to evolve a mechanism by which stock markets recognised companies that laid emphasis on the triple bottomline concept.
Mr. Deveshwar said ITC had created business models whereby there was enmeshing of social well-being and shareholder-value. Emphasising on the need for convergence of societal sustainability and business sustainability, he said it would be difficult for business to thrive in isolation in the face of growing social inequity.
He also suggested that a new stock exchange could be created for developing `trust’ marks to denote a corporate’s sustainability achievements.
http://www.thehindu.com/2007/11/27/stories/2007112756271600.htm
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