Tata Chemicals tops 6th edition of ET Edge - Futurescape Responsible Business Rankings 2019 unveiled at Economic Times - SDG Impact Summit

New Delhi; 19.11.2019: ET Edge and Futurescape today announced the 6^th edition of Responsible Business Rankings 2019 – India’s most comprehensive list of corporates making positive strides towards achieving sustainable development goals. The study was released at the ET SDG 2019 summit held in the city and lists top 100 companies in the country. The 2019 edition was topped by Tata Chemicals, while Infosys and Bharat Petroleum Corporation ranked 2^nd and 3^rd respectively.

The 2019 ET Edge-Futurescape Responsible Business Rankings lists 100 corporates based on the efforts and initiatives taken by each of them around three major themes – governance, environmental and social. The 2019 findings also highlight the initiatives taken and disclosures made around Sustainable Development Goals proactively. In 2017 UN Sustainable Development Summit, members from 193 countries of the United Nations collaboratively committed to adopting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, also known as Global Goals). The countries committed themselves to meet the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. The 17 SDGs and 169 interlinked targets within these range from ending poverty to stemming climate change. These SDGs have to be implemented by 2030 – however, a large number of Indian corporates (65 of the 100 ranked), have proactively started incorporating and mapping SDGs into their responsible business actions. All the top 10 companies in the rankings have mapped their SDGs.

The key findings of the 2019 edition report highlights interesting insights on the state of business responsibility in the country. The report indicates that private sector companies often outperform the public sector companies when it comes to investing into social, environmental and governance initiatives. Manufacturing sector outranks the service sector and sectors like infrastructure and energy are more responsible as compared to capital goods and financial services – when it comes to sustainability narrative.

Commenting on the report, Namrata Rana, the co-author and Director, Futurescape, said, “The discussion around sustainability and responsibility couldn’t have been at a better time than this. The world is witnessing a scenario where years of abuse towards the nature and its resources is getting starkly visible in terms of climate change, widespread pollution and depleting water table. Celebrating the champions who are taking visible steps to contribute towards the environment, sustainability and social change is the need of the hour to ensure they serve an inspiration to millions more. We have in the 6^th edition also added the proactive initiatives being taken around the highly relevant narrative of sustainable development goals by the Indian corporates. What makes us optimistic is that the Indian companies are embracing the SDGs much proactively, thereby not only fortifying a growing economy but also paving way for a greener and cleaner country in the coming years.”

Speaking at its unveiling, Deepak Lamba, CEO, Worldwide Media, said, “Being a knowledge and connect partner to the global corporates, we at ET Edge have always believed in igniting important conversations around themes that are relevant for the decision makers and leaders. SDG is one such frontier – being a critical component for the growth of the businesses in the future but also for ensuring survival of the stakeholders and communities that such businesses aim to serve. The 2019 edition of the report paints an optimistic picture of corporate India and its priorities. I am sure, having such conversations around an important theme constantly will help in shaping the future of the world that we inhabit.”

The report was authored by Utkarsh Mazumdar and Namrata Rana – both alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad. The report was released at the 1st edition of the Economic Times SDGs Impact Summit – held in New Delhi. The Summit was co-conceptualised by ET-EDGE and The World We Want, a global social impact enterprise.

The Summit witnessed participation from 600+ delegates and participants comprising of government, media, talent, civil society, academia, policy, NGOs, and corporates. The Summit was inaugurated by the chief guest Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Minister. Other dignitaries from government included Meenakshi Lekhi, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha and Ranjan Mishra, Director General, National Mission for Clean Ganga, Ministry of Jal Shakti. Eminent corporate leaders from India Inc namely, Preetha Reddy, Vice-Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Group, Anil Chaudhary, Managing Director and Country President, Schneider Electric India, Pradip Barman, Chairman, Dabur Nepal, Anshu Gupta, Founder of Goonj, Mukund Vasudevan, Managing Director, Ecolab India also participated in the event as part of the panels. Besides, a seasoned bureaucrats including Pavan Kumar Agarwal, IAS, Secretary to Government of India and CEO FSSAI, John Roome, Senior Director - Climate Change as The World Bank and UN Environment’s Champions of the Earth - Sonika Manandhar (Nepal), Louise Mabulo (Philippines), and Omar Itani (Lebanon), also attended the event. In addition, actor Swara Bhaskar along with Director Tahira Kashyap Khurana also joined the panels to voice their opinions   on various relevant facets of sustainable development goals.

About Times Strategic Solutions Limited

Times Strategic Solutions Ltd., functional under the brand name ET Edge, is an Economic Times initiative founded to empower multiple industries and segments by sharing critical business knowledge through strategic conferences, exhibitions and summits. Encompassing the Indian business vista, ET Edge strives to bring together visionaries and key leaders on its knowledge platforms to create social and business ecology conducive to the positive changes required by the industry.

About World We Want

The World We Want (WWW), a global social impact enterprise, gathers priorities of people from every corner of the world and help build a collective vision that will be used directly by the United Nations and World Leaders to plan a new development agenda launching in 2015, one that is based on the aspirations of all citizens! Join the global conversation. Share your voice. It all starts with you. What kind of World do you Want?