7th Feb 2020, Mumbai : International Institute of Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility (IICSR) organizes India’s first platform to create a momentum on non-financial reporting on the lines of SDG ratings to enable India to achieve its 2030 UN goals. “Promote non-financial reporting and Establishing an institute in CSR sustainability” is the motto of Harsha Mukherjee, Founder of IICSR.
Past few years, have seen increased focus on sustainable financing from private investors and policy makers. Today, IICSR held the First Edition of INTERNATIONAL REPONSIBLE INVESTORS NETWORKS (IRIN) Summit, 2020 at Taj Lands End, Bandra, Mumbai from 10 am onwards where in the inaugural session was taken by Honourable Shri Nawab Malik, Minister of Skills Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of Maharashtra. He mentioned that large scale skill development in the country is the need of the hour to bridge the skill gap. To encourage sustainable investments, we can tap the selfish nature of humans and convey relatively better returns on ESG and SDG focussed funds to attract the investment. He mentioned that ending poverty, address unemployment and re-designing education system are the key objectives on his list. He also elaborated government’s initiative in collaboration with a leading tech giant in order to execute mass skill development. Government would support the courses offered by IICSR for further development and re-skilling.
The event was full of numerous insightful panel discussions covering the topics of sustainability economics metrics, frameworks and measuring techniques which were the key takeaways of the event. The first round of panel discussion involved deep insights on role of financial markets in sustainable economy initiatives taken by stock exchanges and policy makers promoting sustainable economy. The discussion involved experts from AMCs, stock exchanges, Alternate investment funds, regulators from Birla Group, NSE, Torch Investment, Pivot Management, IICA and 100xVC.
This session was followed by another stimulating panel discussion focusing on measurement of sustainability metrics framework and readiness of corporates toward ESG and SDG. The discussion was driven by experts from NASSCOM and representatives from multiple other conglomerates like Tata Sons, Aker Solutions and ICCSR.
The IRIN Summit was a great forum to create awareness about the increasing importance of sustainable growth in all aspects of the economy. In today’s panel it came out clearly that financial markets including banks, institutional investors can play a very important role in guiding and shaping the early adoption of ESG framework across various businesses said Mahesh Patil, Co-Chief Investment Officer. Birla Group
This event also marked the launch date of two apps namely the IICSR app and the DIGITAL PARLIAMENT-an innovative tech based platform for social discussion. Speaking about sustainable growth, NAVNEET MUNOT, CIO-SBI MUTUAL FUND rightly said “With 18% of humanity and one of the fastest growing economy, India’s role would be extremely critical in achievement of SDG by 2030. As deliberated at IRIN, it’s important that all stakeholders including investors and businesses rise to the occasion to make the dream of $5 trillion economy real. More importantly, this growth must be sustainable and equitable”
