What ESG rating products must a SEBI-registered ESG rating provider offer?

SEBI requires every registered ESG rating provider to offer at least six products: an ESG rating, a Transition or Parivartan score, a Combined score, and Core versions of all three built only on assured data. All ratings use a 0 to 100 scale, must be comparable across sectors and must reflect Indian context.

The six required products

1. ESG rating.
2. Transition or Parivartan score.
3. Combined score, joining the ESG rating and the transition score.
4. Core ESG rating, based only on third-party assured or audited data.
5. Core Transition or Parivartan score.
6. Core Combined score.

Rules that apply to all six

• Scores run from 0 to 100, where 100 is the best.
• Each product needs a distinct name, prefix or suffix so users can tell them apart.
• Ratings must be sector-agnostic so companies in different sectors can be compared.
• They must reflect environmental, social and governance aspects that matter in India; SEBI gives an indicative list of Indian parameters.

When fewer products are allowed

If a provider's ESG rating already uses only assured data, it need not issue a separate Core version. If transition assessment is built into the ESG rating, it need not offer a separate Combined score. In both cases the provider must say so in its rationale and methodology.

What legally counts as an ESG rating

The CRA Regulations define ESG ratings broadly: any rating product marketed as an opinion on an issuer's or security's ESG profile, exposure to ESG, climate or environmental risk, or impact on society and the environment, issued using a ranking system, whether or not it is called an ESG rating. Since 4 July 2023 these providers are regulated under the CRA Regulations.

What Senseible does here

Senseible is not an ESG rating provider. For a supplier, its bill-based energy and emissions records are the kind of evidence a listed buyer uses when its own ESG rating is assessed.

• What a Parivartan score measures
• Core ESG rating and BRSR Core
• Indian parameters in ESG ratings

Sources: SEBI Master Circular for ESG Rating Providers, 11 July 2025

Last reviewed 2026-10-23.