Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)

The Indian automotive Industry has a massive opportunity in harnessing sustainability-led growth. The Indian automtive This can open new markets and increase export penetration in others. A low-carbon manufacturing push can drive huge growth and acceleration.

India’s SAF journey will be built on the intelligent use of our abundant feedstock base - from agricultural residues and municipal solid waste to press-mud and used cooking oil. With technology pathways such as HEFA, alcohol-to-jet and FT moving towards scale, it is important that we develop multiple pathways in parallel, as no single route can meet our long-term needs. The key will be establishing viable supply chains and long-term offtake frameworks involving airlines, OMCs, and technology providers.

Secondary steel producers contribute more than 50% of the domestic steel production, and because of the scale, relevance and contribution without decarbonising this sector, India can’t achieve its net zero goals.

These producers use electric arc furnaces and induction furnaces; the latter tend to be more rudimentary operationally, with potential to address operational efficiencies and utilise greater renewables & scrap.

Advancing towards sustainability: The emergence of green mining technologies and practices

The Indian mining industry has been embracing greenmining technologies and practices – from electrification and automation to regenerative and water-efficient solutions – to drive sustainablity across operations and supply chains. The star rating system instituted by the Ministry of Mines, Govt of India (MoM) through Indian Bureau (IBM) for implementation of Sustainable Development Framework (SDF) has been working as an excellent impetus in this regard.

A more concerted effort to resolve challenges around efficient resource utilisation by:

• promoting beneficiation of low-grade ore,
• adoption of renewable/hybrid energy sources,
• mine closures as per approved plan through policy guidelines, and
• adoption of global best practices

can drive this mission towards sustainability even more strongly, reinforcing the need for collaborative innovation and ESG integration in mining.

The global economic paradigm is changing as companies are under tremendous pressure from people across the world to account for the social impact of their businesses. Moreover, endless growth with profit as the sole metric is no longer sustainable. The consequences of social and environmental imbalance are mostly seen in the long term. If allowed to go unchecked, the disruption caused may cause a significant dip in growth and corporate valuations.

Regulators and policymakers can support the transition for MSME into sustainablity by establishing digital public infrastructure for ESG reporting and certification, providing tax benefits and accessible financing for MSMEs and enabling learning at scale for greenskills programmes.

Central banks across the world are looking at embedding climate risk guidelines into financial frameworks. RBI came up with the draft guidelines for India last year. This has been followed up by the climate finance taxonomy, greenwashing guidelines, and carbon credit scheme. It's a realisation that there are massive risks are ahead of us unless we act with speed and at scale.