INSIGHTS
Insights, Evidence, & Governance Thinking.
Perspectives on social risk, governance architecture, compliance shifts, and the systems behind accountability.
Regulatory Intelligence
- 12 min read
The four labour codes came into force on 21 November 2025, repealing twenty-nine central labour laws, and the final central rules followed on 8 May 2026. For a factory of about a hundred people, several obligations are now settled and headcount-triggered: a new wage definition that lifts provident fund and gratuity costs, appointment letters for every worker, a grievance committee at twenty workers, a works committee at a hundred, and a creche at fifty.
Supplier Accountability
- 30 min read
For a growing number of Indian manufacturers and exporters, a SMETA audit has become the compliance test that actually gates the order, ahead of anything SEBI requires. A buyer in Europe or the United States asks for one, and a factory that never had a BRSR obligation suddenly has an auditor at the gate. It matters here for one specific reason: SMETA measures a site against the ETI Base Code as well as Indian law, whichever protects the worker more, so a factory that is fully compliant with the labour codes can still receive findings. This post walks through what the auditor does on the day, and where mid-sized Indian factories most often lose ground.
Social Governance Fundamentals
- 12 min read
Most social compliance advice in India is written for the top 1,000 listed companies. The unlisted manufacturers and exporters that carry the bulk of the country’s production sit below the BRSR line but still face buyer audits, the labour codes, and customer questionnaires. This post explains who the missing middle is and what social governance actually means for a company this size.
Governance Architecture
- 16 min read
BRSR requires every listed company to disclose grievance mechanisms and resolution data across all nine NGRBC Principles. The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 mandates a Grievance Redressal Committee for any establishment with 20 or more workers. Most companies have the policy document. Very few have a functioning system with documented intake, defined workflows, escalation triggers, and closure records. This post maps the full regulatory requirement, identifies the five failure modes that show up in assessment and audit, provides an eight-step build guide for mid-sized companies, and includes FAQs on contract worker access, zero-grievance red flags, and the distinction between POSH and general grievance mechanisms.
Regulatory Intelligence
- 14 min read
Three regulatory shifts in 2025 and 2026 have been widely misread as a reprieve for Indian suppliers: the EU Omnibus I scope reduction, SEBI’s decision to make value chain disclosure voluntary, and the EU Deforestation Regulation delay. This post explains why none of them reduced buyer-side pressure, maps the three EU regulations Indian exporters cannot ignore (the Forced Labour Regulation, the EUDR, and the CSDDD), details what a real buyer social audit asks for across five areas, and draws the line between a supplier code of conduct and a supplier compliance operating model.
Social Governance Fundamentals
- 7 min read
CSR is philanthropy governed by Section 135 of the Companies Act. Social governance is operational infrastructure tested under BRSR Core assessment and buyer audits. This post explains the five concrete differences, includes a comparison table, and walks through what happens when a buyer audit team arrives at a company that has confused one for the other.
Governance Architecture
- 9 min read
Most Indian companies have social policy documents. Very few have social governance systems. This post explains the difference, walks through the six pillars of governance infrastructure that make social disclosures defensible, identifies the five gaps that show up across companies from small exporters to listed manufacturers, and includes a 10-point self-assessment to test whether your company has a governance system or just a document.
Workforce and Labour Rights
- 14 min read
Companies using AI for hiring, performance management, and workforce monitoring have social governance obligations that map directly to BRSR Principles 3 and 5. Most have not made that connection. This post explains which governance questions AI in the workplace creates under BRSR, what India’s DPDP Act adds, and what the governance architecture needs to look like for companies that want their social disclosures to hold up under assessment.
Regulatory Intelligence
- 12 min read
FY 2026-27 is the year BRSR Core assessment or assurance reaches the full top 1,000 listed companies in India. For companies entering scope for the first time, the data being collected right now will go to a third party. This guide explains what BRSR Core actually requires, what the first three waves of assessment revealed, and what a readiness checklist looks like for a company that has not yet built social governance systems behind its disclosures.
Supplier Accountability
- 16 min read
Most procurement teams in India manage financial, quality, and delivery risk on their suppliers. Supplier social risk, covering labour practices, wage compliance, safety conditions, subcontracting exposure, and grievance access, is the gap. With BRSR Core value chain expectations, CSRD buyer questionnaires, and the EU Forced Labour Regulation converging, that gap is becoming commercially expensive. Here is what a real supplier social compliance system looks like, and how to know whether yours is one.
REACH US
If this resonates with the governance challenges you are navigating,
we welcome a focused conversation about where your organisation stands and what building the right systems would look like.