The School of Business Environment, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), concluded yesterday a 2-day workshop with the ESG Impact Leaders represented from different parts of the country at its campus at IMT Manesar. Shri Amarjeet Sinha, Member, Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB), Govt. of India, highlighted the relevance of ESG in changing global corporate landscape and the required leadership skills for becoming an Impact leader. He emphasised the need for Impact-Leaders in the domain of ESG and motivated the delegates to be path-breaking in their diverse roles in the ESG ecosystem. He lauded IICA for successfully concluding the foundation batch of the Programme

Delivering the Valedictory address, Shri Praveen Kumar, DG&CEO, IICA shared that the ‘IICA Certified ESG Professional: Impact Leader Programme’, has been received well by the industry. He highlighted the significance and timely constitution of a ‘National Association of Impact Leaders’ (NAIL) which is a membership-based association only for ESG professionals, certified by the IICA.

Prof. Raghu Tata, Professor, XLRI, Jamshedpur, set an enthusiastic tone to the session, by highlighting the planetary limitations and environmental challenges faced by global corporate community and how the corporate ambition needs to be scaled up to address these challenges, while performing within these limitations.

Mr. Ashok Emani, Head ESG, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, enlightened the gathering on the aspects of ESG Investing and gave an ESG investor’s perspective to the delegates.

Mr. Shankar Venkateswaran, Adjunct Faculty, IICA, emphasised on the sustainability in the business strategy and focused on the importance of identifying the material risk and and developing KPIs.

Mr. Kanishk Negi, Sustainable Procurement Director (Global), Schneider Electric, focused on the “S” in the ESG, as he highlighted the importance of Impact-focused leadership for integrating respect for Human Rights in the business operations and processes.

Ms. Anu Chaudhary, Partner & Global Head- ESG, Uniqus Consultech Inc., gave an insight into core aspects of Climate Risk and Accounting which sensitized the gathering about the importance of GHG inventorisation for reducing climate risk.

Prof. Rupamanjari Sinha Ray, Professor, MDI also addressed the participants on SDGs.

Prof. Garima Dadhich, Head School of Business Environment, IICA highlighted the importance and relevance of the ESG Professionals in today’s rapidly changing economy, she gave an overview of the unique pedagogy adopted for the programme.

Pertinent to mention that the programme was inaugurated by Ms Leena Nandan, Secretray, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, in December last year. The event was attended by forty senior corporate officials and IICA trained professionals ready to become as the Certified ESG Impact Leaders. 

About IICA:

The IICA is an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India focusing on the niche areas of corporate affairs as a premier institution in the country. It provides policy advocacy, research and capacity building support to Government, Corporates and other stakeholders to drive corporate growth, reforms and regulations.

Certified ESG Professional programme expands impact leadership certification and creates a membership association for ESG professionals. The IICA conducted a two-day workshop under its IICA Certified ESG Professional: Impact Leader Programme to train senior corporate officials and IICA-trained professionals in ESG investing, climate-risk accounting and GHG inventorisation, material risk identification and KPI development, sustainability strategy integration, and human-rights-focused operations, and announced a membership-based National Association of Impact Leaders (NAIL) to formalize a professional community for certified ESG practitioners.