‘The  BRSR  is  an  initiative  towards  ensuring  that  investors  have  access to Standardized disclosures  on  ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) parameters. Access  to relevant and comparable  information, will enable  investors  to  identify  and  assess sustainability- related  risks  and  opportunities  of companies and  make  better  investment  decisions. At  the  same  time, companies  will be able  to  better  demonstrate their sustainability  objectives,  position  and  performance resulting into long term value creation. Overall, higher standards of ESG disclosures and transparency, will help in attracting more capital and investment.’ (SEBI Circular dated March 10, 2021). 

The BRSR disclosure requirements come into force from FY 2022-23, and they have been made voluntary for FY 2021-22. They will be applicable to the top 1,000 listed entities.

“When I report on stories, the financial documents form a very strong base in terms of verifying the information that I have from other sources. The main documents that I look at are balance sheets and profit-and-loss accounts. These two documents give me a complete overview of how the money’s flowing in and out of the company. Along with these there are auditors’ reports, and cash flow statements, all of these combined give you a picture of the financial health of the company, as well as if there are any shady dealings or any kind of discrepancies in the transactions,” explains Sonal Matharu, senior journalist, Confluence Media.

One will find all the information about the financial health of a company in these documents, from Balance sheets, to Profit and Loss statements. 

How to access these documents: 

You can find the annual reports on the websites of companies. 

Look up the name of the company, go to their website. 

Since each website is different, the report could be found under a section for investors. However, this could vary by company. 

Pro Tip: Since the reports are available in public domain, companies are mindful and may try to present them in ways to make them more marketing-friendly. So, be careful to read between the lines and with some scepticism (A reminder in case we have not stressed this part already.)

However, while companies can try to present information with a marketing perspective, they cannot lie in these reports. These are considered to be official documents, and false information can be held against the companies. 

In addition to financial statements, you can also find information on company composition and policies. For example, how many women sit on the company’s board? Or what policies or measures does the company have in place for stakeholders who come from vulnerable and marginalised backgrounds? Do they have special training programmes for women, for people with disabilities? The Business Responsibility Reports which have a lot of valuable information are part of company annual reports. We explore the BRR in more detail here.

How to read a balance sheet:

A typical balance sheet has two broad sections, assets and liabilities, and they both are equal to each other. 

Assets = Liabilities

Assets: These are the resources that the company owns/controls. They have economic value. These include cash reserves, securities, inventory, and even fixed capital assets such as land and equipment. 

Liabilities: Things that the company is liable for – what it owes to others. This could include the rent it owes, the bills, wages and even taxes it has to pay. The equity a company owes to its shareholders is also included in liabilities. 

So, you can also write the formula as Assets = Liabilities + Equity. 

Why is all this information important and how can you use it?

The balance sheet has a lot of information on a company’s financial dealings – from what it owns to what it owes. 

You can look at the situation of a company’s liquidity, you can see its debts, you can also get a glimpse of  how the situation changes over time. A balance sheet paints a picture of the company’s finances at one point in time, so you can compare different time periods and map how different components have changed over time. And you can spot any sudden changes or anomalies and investigate them further. 

In addition to the balance sheet, you should also look at the profit and loss (P&L) statements of the company. 

P&L sheets provide information on revenue, expenses, depreciation, taxes etc. and give you a sense of whether a company is performing well or not. So, a company may have high revenues, but also high expenses, leading to low profits or even loss. While another may have lesser revenue but due to lower expenses, might be making profit. 

“These sheets cannot be looked at in isolation,” says journalist Sonal Matharu. While the balance sheet will give you a sense of the assets and liabilities, the P&L statements tell you about revenues and expenses. “That actually breaks down the whole system for you – it tells you where the money is coming  from. Where is it going in the company?” Matharu adds. 

And while these are documents prepared by companies, audit reports give an outsider perspective on company finance.

Why should reporters know about audit reports?

While other financial reports such as the balance sheet, P&L statements are put together by the company, audits are done by independent auditors, who don’t have vested interests in the company. So, these reports can flag any violations, misreporting, or even raise concerns about certain financial dealings. Audit reports can flag major violations and expose scams (see an example on the DHFL scam below), but sometimes, they can also point a reporter towards a possible scam. 

Pro Tip: The trick lies in reading the fine print and reading between the lines.

For example, while investigating a story on the Scania bus scam, Matharu observed a loan flagged in the audit report, one that the company could not explain to the auditor. Therefore,  the auditor could not verify where that money had come from or for what it was being used. 

Wrapping up, companies are required to put out information on their financial performance in the public domain. These are available in the annual reports. Companies are also required to get their finances audited. In between all these pages and tables, lie immense possibilities of research and reporting. While one sheet by itself will not necessarily lead to a story, if you spend enough time, and are able to read different documents together, it’s only a matter of time when you’ll run into something insightful. Get started now, we’d say.

Story Examples

The Golden Touch of Jay Amit Shah, Rohini Singh, The Wire 

‘No Link’ to Scania Bus Said Gadkari, But Sons’ Messages, Loan to Front Company Say Otherwise, Sonal Matharu, Joe Sperling, Hans Koberstein, Confluence Media

From 2014 to 2019: How the Adani Group funded its expansion, M. Rajshekhar, Scroll.in 

Forensic audit finds fraudulent transactions worth Rs 14,000 crore in DHFL, Business Line 

Rs 7,926 crore loan fraud: Ex-TDP MP floats fake firms in name of maids, drivers, sweepers, Times of India 

The big debts of Reliance Big: more thorns in Anil Ambani’s bleeding crown, Economic Times 

How can one use RERA data in their journalistic work? 

RERA is a relatively new source of information.  Because each state has its own Act, and its own website for this information, there is no centralised information available. 

However, there are many stories possible from this source of information, according to John Samuel Raja: 

First, using this data, reporters can track the industry for specific districts: identify locations where projects are coming up, the kind of projects coming up etc. 

In 2021, more than a year into the pandemic, a reporter can analyse this data to see the patterns of office spaces and residential areas that have emerged in the past year or so, for example. 

Second, in case of a complaint, reporters can access more information about the project and cross-check the details of the claims being made by the developer. 

Third, as reporters you can find essential stories by connecting the dots. You start with some information, and then build a dataset on top of it. For example, if there have been complaints against a particular developer, you could look at all other projects where the said developer was involved, and track all the complaints that emerge.

How-to Guide 

• Go to parivesh.nic.in
• Scroll down to the Approvals section. You will see three boxes – environment clearance, forest clearance and wildlife clearance.
• Click on the Environment clearance icon to check statistical and analytical reports of applications submitted by companies for clearance from the ministry.

Environment Clearance Section

• Dashboard Tab
• Under the Environment clearance section, click on Dashboard.
• It opens a page with different search bars. You can search by year of submission, state, project sector. 

• The result will be displayed in the coloured boxes. It gives data on the number of applications in the following category – not accepted, accepted, pending, under process in ministry, recommended by EAC (Expert Appraisal Committee) and applications granted environmental clearance.
• The above mentioned categories can be viewed in two ways. You can click on the EC (environment clearance) tab to see details or you can click on the TOR (terms of reference) tab.
• Highlight the box you want and click on the more info arrow.
• A new window on Environment Clearance Status Query Form opens. The portal has data only on proposals submitted on or after 4th July, 2014.
• Select category, year, state and type of project and search. It opens details of all the proposals in that particular state submitted in the year searched.

• Details on proposal number, proposal name, file number, location, date of submission, company/proponent and attached files come up.
• You can click on the image button to open the attached files.
• This opens a pop-up page with:
  • risk assessment
  • cover letters by companies
  • EC document
  • PH or public hearing document
  • certified monitoring report by ministry
  • EC report 

Pro Tip: The EC report includes public hearing documents or gram sabha/village meeting documents. They can be used to verify reports from the ground.

Analytics Tab

• On the main Environment Clearance menu, the Analytics tab can give a comparison view from the dropdown field.
• A new page will open with search bars to search with time period, sector and state. 
• It will give a bar chart of Environmental clearance (EC) granted for your search.

Pro Tip: Click on the index icon on the extreme right of the chart. There are options to download and export data in various formats. 

Committee Tab

• Go back to the Environment clearance tab and click on the committees tab.
• It opens a list of sector names like coal mining, industrial project 1, 2, 3, infrastructural and other projects.
• Click on the arrow icon in front of any of the sector names to see a list of committee members with their names, addresses and role in the committee.

Pro Tip: This might be helpful if you want to address an RTI application to  a specific committee member.

Pro Tip: Reach out to committee members for  official minutes that have not been recorded, as minutes of meetings go through a series of edits.

EAC Tab

• Click on the EAC tab. The dropdown options will have meeting schedules and agenda, archives of meeting schedules and agenda, minutes of meeting, and minutes of meetings of old proposals.

Pro Tip: Use meeting schedule and agenda option to see a list of scheduled meetings with details of the expert committee, meeting date and remarks. 

Pro Tip: You can also view the agenda document. It will have a description of the proposals submitted by companies for clearance and composition of the committee. You can use it to question company authorities or track any conflicts of interest.

Forest Clearance Section

Dashboard Tab

• The dashboard tab opens a page with different search bars. Search by year of submission, state, project sector. 
• There are two ways to read this data: Form type (Form A2 (ii), Form A2 (iii), Form B and Form C) and Proposal type (Under stage – I proposal and Under stage – II proposal).

Pro Tip: The form types are proposal forms that every user agency has to submit to use any forest land for non-forest purposes.

• Click on the desired option. Hover on the coloured boxes and click on the more info text.
• A new window with a list of proposals submitted online by user agencies opens that has details of proposals submitted on or after 15th July, 2014.
• Print or download the data in excel format by clicking on the excel sheet icon on the extreme right.
• The lens icon allows you to view the related report. 
• Swipe left on the list to view more options like timeline details, other related documents and whether FC (forest clearance) is required for that particular project.
• The clock icon under the timeline has the date and details of proposals received at each stage. 

Pro Tip: The page has details on the name of the project for which the forest land is required, short description of the proposal and project/scheme.

• Click on the highlight date given under part ‘B – TimeLine’. It opens a page with EDS (Essential Details Sought) details related to the proposal.

Pro Tip: Use timeline details to find information to track progress of the proposal date and history of essential details sought.

Search FCA Projects Tab

• This opens a list of options to search – all proposals received on or after 15th July, 2014, all proposals received upto 14th July, 2014, all mining proposals received on or after 15th July, 2014, search division-wise proposals or district-wise proposals. 
• When you click on any of the options, a list of proposals submitted in that period will appear.
• You can further refine your search according to form type, year, region, project category, state and status of proposal. 
• You can click on the lens icon to check attached files like gram sabha documents, FRA documents, cover letter, letter of authorization, etc.

Pro Tip: This could be used to see the proposal status of industrial projects in your area and compare it with reports from the ground. This section has all the documents submitted by the proposal proponent. These can be easily saved and included in the story.

Wildlife Clearance Section

Dashboard Tab

• This opens a page with different search bars where you can search by year of submission, state, project sector. 
• Hover your cursor on the coloured boxes and click on more info text. A new window with a list of proposals submitted online by user agencies will open. 
• Refine your search by selecting details under proposal year, state, category, and put the proposal number, if you know it. 
• If you click on the search lens icon under the view report of part I & II column, a new window with the wildlife report opens which has:
  • project details
  • details of user agency or company details
  • details of person making the application
  • details of land acquired under the project
  • maps of protected areas
  • justification for locating the project in protected area and details of alternates examined
  • employment likely to be generated
  • displacement of people due to the project, if any
  • status of environmental clearance
  • whether proposal is for investigation/survey

Pro Tip: Click on hyperlinked text in blue under these categories to check the document related to your story. 

Pro Tip: Go back to the previous window, and click on the clock icon to see timeline details of the proposal. Some of the timeline reports have their dates highlighted if there is  an attached document. 

Wildlife Projects Tab

• Search WL projects tab and the All wildlife clearance proposals from the dropdown field will open with a list of proposals submitted online by user agencies.
• Select proposal year, category like disputed settlement claims, irrigation, mining, state, status of proposal. The enter value of search box can be used if you have the proposal number. It opens a list of proposals in that area with proposal number, state, username agency or company name, proposal status, reports and timeline details.
• You will find a pdf of related reports.

How-to Guide 

Forest Fires 

• Go to fsi.nic.in. The forest fire tab has a dropdown menu with options of Focus Areas, FSI forest fire porta. You will find: 

1. 1. Forest fire management related initiatives of FSI
   2. Near real time (NRT) forest fire alerts
   3. Forest fire pre-warning alerts 
   4. Burn scar studies i.e. assessment of forest areas impacted by fire
   5. FSI Forest Fire Alert System

Pro Tip: The number of forest fire alerts disseminated in each state of the country by FSI (2004-2018) is available in the NRT tab, click For Forest Fire Alerts disseminated by FSI.

Near Real Time monitoring of Forest Fire 

Pro Tip: Sign-up to receive SMS and email alerts with geo-coordinates of the fire location as well as a weblink to view it on their browser. 

• Scroll down to the section Search Fire Points. You can search fire points year or state wise or via sensor source i.e MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and SNPP (Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership – Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite).
• A new page opens with exact fire points in the selected state and time period.
• You can print or export the data in excel.
• Click on the highlighted latitude and longitude number to see the exact fire point on the map.
• Similarly, you can explore other features of the FSI Fire Alert System.

Pro Tip: This section can be used to collect data to report on forest fires in the country.

State of Forest Report Tab

• Go to fsi.nic.in.
• Click on the state of forest report. The dropdown field has a list of the years from 1989-2019.

Pro Tip: Some years’ tab directly opens a list of content and index of the report, while others open a page with the report in English and Hindi. The contents page has chapter names hyperlinked to the pdf. 

Pro Tip: The reports can be used to study land use patterns, decadal change in water bodies within forests, carbon stock in forests and forest cover within and outside Recorded Forest Area (RFA).

How-to Guide

FRA tab

• Click on the divisions section under the website name.
• Select FRA from the dropdown menu. It opens a page on the Forests Right Act.
• Scroll down to the resources box on the LHS. Click on monthly progress report 2020 which opens a box with monthly progress reports from 2017-2020, also available as pdf.

Pro Tip: This is a monthly status report of implementation of the Scheduled Tribes & Other Traditional Forest Dweller (Recognition of Forests Rights) Act 2006. It gives information on the state-wise number of claims received, titles distributed and the extent of forest land for which the titles were distributed.

• The Filter cases sidebar on the LHS can be used to select state/union territory, sector, laws involved and type of land.
• A card will pop up with the conflict in the area selected.
• The card title has more conflict details like a fact sheet, legal data, resources.

Story Examples

Government, Industries Nationwide Dodge Law, Take Over Forest Land Without Consent Of Tribal Communities, Manira Chaudhary, India Spend.

Barely Regulated Thermal Power Plants Use Up More Water Than Permitted, RTI Data Show, Rishika Pardikar, India Spend.

Govt Ignored NTCA Warning That Sagarmala Plan Is Bad For Western Ghats Biodiversity, Nihar Gokhale, The Wire.

Information about violations can be found at the website of the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

• Go to sec.gov/enforce/sec-enforcement-actions-fcpa-cases.
• All cases are listed year-wise.
• Click on the case you are interested in, and you will be directed to a page with all the relevant information. 

• To find information, you will need to go to ACRA’s website.
• On the left hand side, there is an option to search for a business entity.
• Enter the company name, and it shows you companies with that name. 
• Select the company whose information you want. It adds the file to the cart. 
• You can buy it, and explore. Do check a free preview to ensure you have selected the right company before purchasing!

• To get this data, visit the website of the SEC: sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html.
• In the search box, enter the name of the company of interest.
• From the search results, click on the CIK number link of the company.
• You will get all the information filed by the company.

Pro Tip: One interesting way to use information available on the SEC website, says John Samuel Raja, is to do a sector-wide analysis. For example, if you are covering an industry where the large companies are not necessarily Indian ones , but have their shares in the US market, (no matter what their country of origin) you will find their information on the SEC website. 

Another good data point to look out for is information about company directors. This information can tell us a lot about specific individuals, and also give an overview of a sector or the business landscape. From finding links about violations of laws, to understanding conflicts of interest, familial ties, or representation, this one indicator can lead to some interesting and important storytelling.

Consider two examples here:

In this story for Scroll.in, journalist M.Rajshekhar tracks all companies on which an MP is listed as a director, and shows how a legal loophole has allowed him to hide his full wealth from the election panel.

Another, and a very different example, is of a series published in The Indian Express where company data of the NIFTY 500 companies was analysed to evaluate gender representation at the top. (All parts of the series can be found here: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V).

(Disclaimer: Team Newsworthy was involved in the production of this series).

Then there are other resources such as annual returns and balance sheets. Click here to learn more about how you can use these resources.

How-to Guide 

Explore CSR Data 

• Go to csr.gov.in.
• Click on ‘Explore CSR data’. The dropdown menu has options to check CSR data.

1. State-wise.
2. Development sector-wise.
3. Company-wise.

State-wise CSR data

• The ‘state-wise’ option opens a list of State and UTs and the CSR amount they have received in the past six financial years.
• There are two ways to look at this data set. You can click on the state name to get an overview and comparative report of the CSR amount spent. Or click on the amount spent of a particular financial year to get company and district-wise CSR data.
• For eg, let’s check CSR data of Delhi in FY 2019-20.

The page gives a district-wise map of the state with an overview of CSR expenditure in the state.

• If you scroll down, you will see the top three companies with the highest CSR spent on the left. On  the right you will see the top three development sectors where most of the CSR amount was spent.
• Click on ‘development sector-wise amount spent’ to see the list of development sectors like health, education, environment, etc and the amount they have received from companies under CSR projects in Delhi.
• Scroll down and click on ‘district covered’ to see CSR amount spent in each district of Delhi.
• Click on the district name to explore the district specific CSR details of companies and development sectors.

Company specific CSR data

• Go back to the ‘Explore CSR data’ tab and select ‘Company specific CSR data’.
• It will open a search bar where you can either search by CIN or Corporate Identification Number or company name. Let’s search with a company name. Here we will search CSR data of Reliance Industries.
• Click on CIN of Reliance Industries Ltd.
• The company page lists CSR details of the past six financial years. Let’s check the CSR detail of the FY 2019-20.
• The page gives details on:
  • Average net profit.
  • CSR amount spent.
  • CSR prescribed expenditure.

• It also lists expenditure on all the CSR projects, development sectors and states.

Development sector-wise data

• Go back to the ‘Explore CSR data’ tab and select ‘development sector-wise data’.
• The page gives a list of development sectors and amount spent by companies on related projects.
• Click on the amount to get CSR details of a particular sector. Let’s check the first one.
• Here are the CSR details of Clean Ganga Fund in FY 2019-20
• You can explore the CSR amount spent ‘state-wise’ and ‘company-wise by clicking on its tabs.

Pro Tip: CSR data can also be accessed from the MCA website’s CSR data and summary section. However, there is  little data, and only information for FY 2014-15 and FY 2015-16 is available.

CSR information is also available on the BRSR Reports mandated by SEBI. Learn how to use them here.

How should reporters use CSR related information in their work? 

There are two ways  you could approach this, explains Raja. You can either navigate through sectors (such as education, health etc). You could see which sectors get prioritised. Second, you could look at specific companies and see where they spend their money in terms of region or sector. Most importantly, see who is the implementing agency for the projects the company is spending on.

One finding we have had based on a preliminary analysis of CSR data is that companies are spending money close to where their headquarters are physically located, says Raja. So, you are likely to have many projects around Mumbai and Delhi (where many of the company HQs are located). “But if you look at deprivation – where the money is actually needed – districts where health and education infrastructure is lacking, for example – there is a mismatch”, says John. “And one can use the CSR data to bring out insights like that,” he adds.

Another way reporters can use CSR data is that often companies claim that they are spending money on a particular project. As a reporter, you can access all the information about the project, and then visit the project site to cross-check if the claims match up with the ground reality.

Pro-tip: In addition to CSR data available on the website, you can also look at disclosures required by SEBI in Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reports. Find our detailed guide on that here. The report has information on the number of women employees, number of employees with a disability, supplier policies etc. Now match this with CSR work, and find interesting and critical stories.

Story Examples

Vedanta’s Oxygen Output in Thoothukudi Is Less CSR, More Disaster Capitalism, Nityanand Jayaraman, The Wire.

Why this is not CSR: A study of 5 major corporates, Srishti, Tavleen Singh, Down To Earth. 

Ideas that CSR can fund, Osama Manzar, Livemint. 

“The commission must function autonomously, because under the RTI law, they are the final appellate authority… The autonomy of the Commission has been compromised, which means it will have a far reaching impact on the working of the commissioners, and therefore, on people’s ability to access information,” argues Bhardwaj.

This makes it all the more important for journalists to do thorough background research on a story before drafting the RTI application, so that they have the relevant information and know the gaps that they want plugged.

Direct your RTI to the right department or ministry: Identify the ministry or department where you want to file the RTI request – whether it comes under the scope of the local authority, state or central government. It is important that you address the right ministry or department for a quick response. 

For e.g if you seek information under the National Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) data portal, then the RTI request should be addressed to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. If you need something  from the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) or Smart Cities Mission then the RTI request has to be addressed to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

“What has happened over the last few years is, if the information sought in the RTI application is available with multiple departments, then the receiving Public Information Officer does not transfer those portions of the RTI to the relevant departments. Instead they may transfer only one part of it to one department and tell the applicant to go back and file a separate RTI for the other bits of information, which means that the applicant has to do background research to find out who actually holds the information that the applicant wants,” says Nayak.

Apart from the central online RTI portal by the government, almost 37 ministries have their own RTI web portals. If the information you seek is state-specific, then RTI requests could be filed directly from State RTI portals.

Draft your RTI application carefully:

The application must be legible – either typed or neatly handwritten. Use simple and easy language. Try to avoid technical terms and jargon.

Pro Tip: Avoid asking information in the form of questions. 

“Over the last few years, public authorities have developed this practice of saying that if you ask us a question, we don’t have a duty to give you answers as we [will have to] create answers for you. So, there is a greater success when you draft these kinds of affirmative statements like seeking copies of records in government files, or seeking information that can actually be held in computerised or digital form in the government offices,” says Nayak.

Language of the RTI application could be English, Hindi or any official language in which the department lies. You can also mention the language in which you seek a reply. Please note that the department has no responsibility to translate the content of records and it will be provided in the language it was originally prepared in.

Always mention the period for which the records are sought. 

The online RTI portal has a limit of 3000 characters. If your application exceeds the character limit then you can attach the remaining application in the ‘supporting document’ section.

Here is a draft RTI application format that you can refer to.

How to file an RTI offline

How-to Guide 

• Write or type out the application. You can also request the relevant Public Information Officer (PIO) to write the application.
• Address the application to the concerned state or central PIO. Mention ‘Application under RTI Act 2005’ in the subject line.
• To file the request, pay the RTI fee of Rs. 10 in cash or through bank draft or money order or court fee stamp. People living below the poverty line are exempted from paying the fee if they attach a supporting document of BPL card certificate.
• Mention the date, your full name, address and contact details. 
• You can send the application by mail or hand it over at the office personally. Take a photocopy of the request and ask for an acknowledgement from the office for future references.

As per the RTI Act mandate, the concerned office must respond to the request within 30 days. You can file an RTI Appeal to the ‘Appellate Authority’ if you are not satisfied with the reply. You can also appeal to the Information Commission, the Chief Information Commissioner, and the State/Central Information Commission.

What if you don’t get a response/valid response?

If you don’t receive a response within 30 days or if you are not satisfied by the response then you can file the first appeal online using the same RTI registration number. “First appeal lies within the department. But very often that is not successful. The second appeal is an independent appeal and that is with the Information Commission,” says Anjali Bhardwaj.

Venkatesh Nayak suggests that journalists collaborate with RTI activists if they find it difficult to get the information or to follow up on an RTI response.

“There’s a lot of potential for civil society activists, particularly the RTI activists, the transparency advocates, who may be working with organisations or in their individual capacity. They [journalists] can collaborate with RTI activists and say we want to do a story. It’s happened many times. Once or twice a month, I even get these kinds of calls from journalists who are familiar with my work, who have asked me to file RTI applications…”

Supply Chain: Everybody working in the supply chain, from raw material to services, to distribution etc. They are not directly employed by companies, and may often be physically situated far away. Hence, to associate the company with supply chains isn’t always an easy connection to draw. This is also where more scrutiny and vigilance may be needed. Supply chains are critical in shaping a company’s capacities and profitability. And can be a source of exploitation, sometimes even unknown to the company.

Shareholders, Investors, Lenders, Stock markets: Shareholders should get the correct picture of a company’s performance  which can help them to decide about further investments. While a company’s economic responsibility to make a profit or provide fair return on an investment may seem like its main obligation, shareholders and investors can and do put an emphasis on a business’ social responsibilities.

Competitors: Other companies working in the same industry. 

Natural Resources: Companies, especially large ones, have a large impact on resources where they operate. A new plant could mean a formerly clean river could be polluted, or a new waste dump comes up in an area. While laws mandate companies to get clearances if they affect natural resources, the actual compliances often leave much to be desired. 

Communities: Local communities can either benefit or lose out if a company expands in their area. It could mean more employment, or loss of livelihood if a company uses the resources they depend on. Local communities often come in conflict with business expansion when they feel they are at a loss. A skewed balance of power and influence means companies can get away with less accountability. 

Regulators, Government and the Law: The state is a major actor in the business ecosystem, determining all the rules of the playbook.

Brand Ambassadors:  Big celebrities who lend their names and faces to brands, helping them reach new consumers, thereby adding a degree of validation to all that the brand stands for.

Now think of how many of these characters find themselves in stories, narratives and headlines, and how often? Which ones get missed out, and which ones get the most space? Also, think about which of these stakeholders our stories most cater to? Are we amplifying and magnifying only some, almost to the point of invisibilizing others? Are we covering the world of business holistically, with all its intersections with the state, society and the environment? 

“CSR is included in our national guiding principles. These are overlapping concepts but what has happened is that the narrative on CSR has become too focussed on the ‘two percent’. For a researcher, CSR is an opportunity to question companies because you can often see a company spend its CSR funds on community development, while violating their rights in the course of its main work. CSR is often used as a tool to influence public opinion. Then there are questions of CSR violations, eg: Nestle giving money to FSSAI, or Reliance spending almost 1200 crores on the Jio University from its CSR funds, or the case of Sterlite offering in court to spend 100 crores for local development in Thoothukudi.” -Dheeraj, Praxis, the Institute for Participatory Practices

CSR, as mandated by law in India, often ends up receiving media attention. It is often used to frame the narrative of social impact, empowering communities through this set-aside share of revenue. This even as the original business may be violative of the rights of other communities.

Media reportage of CSR spending by a company, often ends up equating the CSR budget of a specific concern with actual commitment to the cause in the entire business operation. So, companies that donate  to an NGO working with survivors of sexual violence may be considered champions of women’s rights, even if they  don’t have functional POSH Committiees to address sexual harassment complaints filed by their women employees. Similarly, a company that spends its CSR money planting trees, might be confused for one that is mindful of the environment even if its expansion maybe leading to destruction of forest land.

Reporting on CSR spending is important, but it only skims the surface – how much money did the companies allocate on CSR, and where did they spend it? Reporting on business responsibilities goes beyond that – it looks at responsible practices inside companies, and across areas they operate in. This includes policies on worker rights, ecological footprint, conflicts of interest, redistribution of profits, preventing discrimination and building safe workspaces.

Looking at CSR budgets could definitely be the beginning of a journalistic exploration and understanding accountability, but it should not stop at just that. Further, CSR allocations need to be assessed critically as well, and not reported as they are.

Pro Tip: How to find a story on CSR spending? Head to Chapter 2 on Essentials.

“There are two sets of reasons why we don’t see this kind of reportage more often. I wouldn’t call them barriers, but they are more of a conditioning of the mind:

First, it is a self-inflicted malaise. Many journalists are conditioned by what their media owners demand from them. Essentially, reporters are also workers in the media industry, and they are subjected to pressures from the owners of their publications. Often this is not very overt – it is implicit and understood – you know what needs to be done. And this arises from the fact that very often companies are treated as potential clients in terms of interests, in terms of advertising. And publications may not want to be seen as hurting the organised interests of companies so to speak.

Second, sometimes it is because we have accepted this to be the norm: that you cannot question companies. You can see this reflected in the contrast between how an ordinary citizen is covered versus how companies are covered in the media. For example, when somebody is accused of a petty crime, one assumes and reports the version of the police even before one has the version from the accused. But this will not be the case if the accused is a corporate entity. If it were a large business group or a big businessperson who is accused of something, the media will take great care to ensure to show how the accusation has not yet been proven, and will continue to confer respect on such entities and such persons,” explains Sridhar V., journalist.

Often accountability of businesses is only reported in terms of legal compliances and financial health. It is easy to understand why that is so. Two major stakeholders in the corporate world – government regulators and shareholders – are interested in knowing this, and business reporters tend to cover only these aspects.

However, why should shareholders not be told what the company is doing when it comes to its ecological footprint, or how it works towards ensuring humane working conditions throughout its supply chains? Why should investors, current and potential, not have the full picture of the routine practices of a business? Companies are often not likely to push out this information on their own. In fact, they could have a vested interest to keep such information guarded as best they can.

Even though businesses are known to be guarded and reluctant about openly communicating “internal” matters, they are required by law to disclose a whole host of information about their practices. Mandatory disclosures have meant that a huge amount of information about companies is available in the public domain. As a journalist, you need to be familiar with these documents. This module will help scope the range of information available, how to access it, make sense, find a story idea, join the dots, how to use it to amplify on ground work or nudge you in the direction of a powerful story. It may also alert you to an unseen angle in existing reportage.

Here is how you can go about it.

The section titled “The Essentials” has a collection of important documents, websites and resources that are essential to reporting business practices effectively. It is a virtual hand-holding on where to find the information, sites you should regularly check, and things you should save.

The chapter titled “The Policies” will help you understand the framework of responsibility better by introducing you to  existing laws and policies on the subject , and how they can help you ask the right questions of companies.

Narratives about companies cannot be linear because the world of business isn’t. The section “The Intersections” will help you see and understand intersectionality, and how you can add more layers to your business story.

Each section of the module has examples of stories that could inspire, some useful resources, tips and tricks to help make stories more impactful, as well as a short list of people working on similar themes whom you could follow on social media.

The concluding section ties the learnings together. We know stories need to be visual, illustrative, multimedia. So there is a list of tools to help you add and amplify your stories, tips on safety and digital security. We also provide you with possible ways to collaborate.

We hope you are ready to explore and learn. But before you start here are some rules of thumb to keep in mind going forward:

“One of the primary functions of the media is to inform. So when a company puts out a press release, you compare it to what it said earlier, do some research and find out more. And in the era of the internet there are many tools available to journalists to do this fairly easily. One has access to so many other resources today, it should be possible for any media publication to cross-check the claims put forward by a company.”

And if the information is not forthcoming despite attempts, the journalists’ output should reflect this reluctance of companies to answer questions that have been raised in public interest, Sridhar adds.

Keep the public interest at the forefront of all your reportage.

Actively seek out and identify patterns based on information available in various company documents.

Try to connect the dots between what is happening on the company’s growth front versus its social, environmental and human footprints.

Push company heads and spokespersons to reflect not only on the technical aspects of business operations, but also larger implications of their policies and practices.

Place the developments of individual companies in the larger context of the industry, the geography and so on.