One of the sub-sections in the BRSR format mandates disclosure of the number of complaints or grievances related to any of the nine Principles under the National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC) that encompass a wide range of issues. Available data indicates that more than 90% of these complaints are by customers while most investor and shareholder related complaints are against listed PSUs. In the previous explainer, we looked at how the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) framework, introduced in 2021, marked a significant shift in corporate reporting towards sustainability and accountability. Unlike its predecessor Business Responsibility Reporting, BRSR emphasizes both business responsibility and sustainability, reflecting global ESG standards. Changes in format, questions, and indicators enhanced the comprehensiveness of the reporting, aligning Indian reporting practices with international norms and promoting transparency and stakeholder engagement. One of the sub-sections in Section A (General disclosures) of the questionnaire deals with transparency and disclosure compliance. Under this, details of the number of complaints or grievances related to any of the nine Principles under the National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC) that encompass a wide range of issues is sought. As seen in the previous story, these principles cover various aspects of responsible business conduct, including human rights, labour practices, environmental sustainability, anti-corruption measures, and community development. The table compiles information on grievances received from various stakeholder groups, indicating whether a grievance redressal mechanism is in place and provides a web link to the policy if available. It presents data for the current and previous financial years, including the number of complaints filed, complaints pending resolution at year-end, and any relevant remarks. This information disclosed by the mandated top 1000 companies by market capitalization on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange websites for 2021-22 to 2023-24 has been compiled and is available in Dataful. Dataful also has a collection of datasets on other financial, environmental, social and governance-related parameters disclosed in BRSR such as paid-up capital, turnover and net worth of the companies, shares and contributions, and other details of each of the subsidiary companies, number of locations, types of business activities and products and services that are done, and information on employees and workers. 1139 companies have disclosed BRSR between 2021-22 and 2023-24 Between 2021-22 and 2023-24, a total of 1139 companies have submitted their BRSR reports. The reporting years followed by companies are not uniform due to financial year alignment, global operations, internal reporting cycles, transition periods, etc. For instance, Nestle India Limited furnished the report for the calendar year 2022 whereas State Bank of India follows the financial year from April to March. Siemens Limited follows the calendar from October to September. Customers are the primary source of complaints According to the data, a total of 881.45 lakh complaints were received by the companies between 2021-22 and 2023-24. Of these, nearly 793.2 lakh complaints or 90% were raised by customers. Those by other stakeholders accounted for 9.4% of the total complaints. About 1.6 lakh complaints were raised by employees or workers, 1.24 lakh complaints by other shareholders, and 1.06 lakh complaints by value chain partners. Communities made less than 85,000 complaints while investors made 63,441 complaints. 3 companies were responsible for nearly half of the total complaints reported The highest number of complaints were reported by the State Bank of India with over 170.8 lakhs followed by Vodafone Idea Limited with 150.4 lakh complaints and Dish TV India Limited with 113.5 lakh complaints. Together, these three companies with more than 100 lakh complaints each accounted for more than 49% of the total complaints. In addition to this, there are 11 more companies which have reported more than 10 lakh complaints each. The 14 companies together accounted for nearly 79% of the total complaints. Further, including these 14, a total of 52 companies out of 1139 reported more than one lakh complaints each, accounting for more than 96% of the complaints. In short, a relatively small number of companies reported the bulk of the complaints. This could be because of factors such as market presence, type of business activities, industry dynamics, service quality issues, public visibility, and the scale of operations that play significant roles in driving complaint volumes.