Indian technology and services firms will see business grow from the increasing investments by global firms in improving their environmental, social and governance goals (ESG), a new study by IT industry body Nasscom and Boston Consulting Group said.

In line with what’s happening globally, India too is witnessing an increasing focus on ESG. Assets under management (AUM) for ESG themed funds rose to $650 million in FY21 from $275 million in FY20, a 2.5X increase. The report, ‘The Next B ..

Further, the adoption of ESG initiatives by tech companies was being driven by certain external factors. Several large global enterprises are demanding that their vendors adopt certain ESG goals if they want to pitch for their business. There’s a clear business imperative for companies to invest in ESG, said Gupta. Further, investors are also asking startups to define an ESG strategy, which is also pushing them to focus more on adopting these as a part of their larger strategy.

Gupta said that while the larger companies already had clearly defined goals and an ESG roadmap in place, it would work with the smaller firms to help them work these into their strategic priorities and start the journey towards adopting it internally, as well creating solutions for customers. Alongside sharing best practices, she added that it was important to understand what practices would be relevant to the company, depending on its size and its business priorities.

Nasscom is also working on creating appropriate measurement metrics for the Indian market and work on how it can showcase these initiatives to make it a clear differentiator for the Indian tech industry. Some areas companies are currently focusing on include carbon footprint and green technology, diversity and inclusion and skilling and business ethics and compliance and risk and crisis management.