Knowledge Partner

Basics of ESG

Hosted by
Mr. Swaminathan R., Director, Consulting
Deloitte

Ms. Akanksha Singh, Manager, Consulting
Deloitte

Mr. Pratul Narayan, Senior Consultant, Consulting
Deloitte

Introduction
A megatrend now, ESG has garnered key interest from Companies, Investors, Policy makers and Consumers. With the rapid evolution of Environment, Social and Governance factors being significantly assessed by the investing community, it is important to decode the subject in its entirety. The session by Deloitte will focus on the basics and introduction to ESG along with its relevance in today’s context. Further, the participants will get a key insight on what are the key definitions and subsets of ESG along with key identifiers, trends and ratings to get a complete picture of the subject.

Objectives:
1. What is ESG?
2. Why is ESG important?
3. Key ESG Identifiers

About the Facilitator

1. Mr. Swaminathan R., Director, Consulting, Deloitte

Swaminathan is a Director with the social impact practice at Deloitte and has extensive experience in the development, corporate and academic sectors. He has provided services for a wide range of companies, philanthropies, foundations, academic institutions and governments in the development sector. He has supported strategy setting, programme design and management, monitoring and evaluation, organizational development, reporting and capacity building for philanthropic foundations, companies and CSOs. Swaminathan has also led a multidisciplinary research programme on cities, sustainability and resilience for Uppsala University, Sweden. In his earlier role, Swaminathan was the Chief Strategy & Programme Officer of Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives (APPI).

Swaminathan has further authored & edited five books and several peer-reviewed publications that have been published in both national and international research journals



2. Ms. Akanksha Singh, Manager, Consulting, Deloitte

Akanksha brings more than eight years of work experience in evidence-based research studies and has supported clients in planning, strategy formulation on scaling operations, revisiting policies, community engagement and designing operational models. Over the past few years, she has engaged in strategic support for multiple clients in ESG and Sustainability advisory space. She has ideated the strategy and design of a freshwater conservation grant and a novel water data infrastructure in the form of a community registry, in addition to managing ESG advisory client engagements. Akanksha holds a master’s degree from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Development Studies and has spent an exchange semester at the Institute of Social Ecology, Vienna, Austria.



3. Mr. Pratul Narayan, Senior Consultant, Consulting, Deloitte

Pratul brings rich experience in management consulting for ESG, CSR & Social Impact, Sustainable Finance, Impact Investing and Microfinance across India. He has worked with a leading Bank and KPMG previously joining Deloitte. Pratul has managed clients from different sectors (BFSI, Manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals and Agrochemicals) to provide solutions across social impact, ESG, monitoring and evaluation along with assessments. This includes the development of strategies, evaluating compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, due diligence for partnering organizations and designing programs. Further, he has extensive experience in research-based impact assessments of large-scale programs across Health, Education, WASH, Skilling, Financial Inclusion and Livelihood programs. Pratul has also supported in the design of pay-for-success program models for the Aspirational District Programme in India.

Pratul holds a master’s degree from Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Social Business Management and Entrepreneurship. Further he holds a practitioner’s certificate on Social Return on Investment from Social Value UK and represented India at the International Antarctic Expedition 2016 to brainstorm solutions on sustainability and climate change along with global leaders.