The Centre aims to be a Centre of Excellence fostering sustainable and ethical organizations defining the future of responsible capitalism.

The Centre will focus on facilitating cutting-edge research and dialogue to improve the ESG performance of organizations and enterprises, while nurturing an ecosystem for stakeholder capitalism in India.

Driven by the mission statement, during its initial years of operation, the Centre shall focus on developing its capabilities in select areas of ESG integration - in line with global trends while being equally mindful of the contextual realities of India.

1. ESG Impact on Organisations: Materiality, Enterprise Value and Risk

A core focus area of the Centre will be to initiate and support empirically grounded research to contribute to the emerging state-of-the-art scholarship on how ESG factors impact organizations which includes — materiality assessment, impact on long term enterprise value, and overall risk profile of organizations.

2. ESG Reporting, Transparency, and Data Infrastructure

The ESG Centre at IIMA will actively engage with multiple stakeholders to help develop the ESG data infrastructure, fine-tune the ESG measurement frameworks, reporting structures, and impact assessments methods to fit with the requirements of the Indian enterprises and organizations.

3. ESG and Investment Stewardship

The ESG centre at IIMA shall aim to develop an informative index of ESG performance that is empirically grounded and based on a deeper qualitative understanding of the operations and contextual factors for Indian enterprises and organizations.

4. ESG and Corporate Social Responsibility

The Centre at IIMA shall support research and investigations to develop insights on linkages between the company’s CSR initiatives, associated performance along ESG dimensions, and evaluation of the impact on overall enterprise value and risk profile.

Research and Insights

The Centre shall support research projects aligned with the core mission and focus areas. Research support could include competitive research grants, fellowships, and support for doctoral research. The Centre may also support data procurement and data collection activities through surveys, interviews, and other electronic means to curate primary and secondary data to support research activities. A core research outcome shall be the development of an India specific ESG metric.

Advisory and Consulting

The Centre will actively engage with companies, investors, and other organisations on short-term consulting projects and advisory services that leverage the core strengths and scholarship developed at the centre. Advisory services will also include the enterprise-level application of the metrics, methods, and frameworks developed at the Centre.

Training, Outreach, and Knowledge Dissemination

The Centre will support the design and development of teaching and training materials including but not limited to case studies, simulations, multimedia content, and other novel pedagogical tools. These teaching content and material shall be used in teaching and learning programmes conducted by the centre and its affiliates. The Centre will conduct periodic outreach and knowledge dissemination activities like expert webinars, public talks, and panel discussions. The Centre will also conduct a flagship annual conference on ESG, with the goal become an influential regional platform for sharing research, insights, and conversations among scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and the media.

Advocacy and Impact on Policy Design

The centre will facilitate dialogue and knowledge sharing between the multiple public stakeholders in the country to help in evidence-based policy design and standards-setting for the ESG ecosystem in India.