Many companies across the Asia Pacific region have stepped up their efforts to keep their whistleblower programmes and policies up to date, and there is more that can be done, according to a senior lawyer of a global law firm.
Companies are recognising that they must adopt best practices in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) space, said Mini vandePol, Head of Baker McKenzie's Asia Pacific Investigations, Compliance & Ethics Group.
On ESG adoption in India, she said that at the moment, it is a little bit of a "mixed bag".
"This is partly because it is being talked about mainly by the regulators like Sebi... I think there is a good understanding of the environmental part... It's the S and the G that are less understood," she said.
Meanwhile, the capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has mandated the top 1,000 listed companies by market capitalisation to make filings as per the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) from FY 2022-23.
In FY 2021-22, more than 175 companies reported on the BRSR framework on a voluntary basis.
"With the BRSR becoming mandatory from this financial year and a number of stakeholders, such as investors and ESG rating providers, placing reliance on disclosures made in the BRSR, assurance becomes key for enhancing the credibility of disclosure and investor confidence," Sebi had said earlier.
On March 8, Sebi extended the timeline until March 15 for the submission of public comments...
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