Paper Title
DETERMINANTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL DISCLOSURE OF BELLWETHER COMPANIES IN INDIA

Abstract
Every country is focusing on the quality of environment and from time-to-time issues guidelines to companies. Industrially advanced nations and those which are developing ones like India obviously have to put a check on the corporate sector so they adhere to the rules and help sustain the quality of environment. Many companies in India voluntarily report about their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The Securities and Exchange Board of India has made environmental disclosure mandatory for the top 1,000 companies from 2022-23FY onwards. According to a report by KPMG, a professional network, only 79 per cent of the top 100 companies in India prepare ‘Environment, Social and Governance Reports’ on their own. In this backdrop, the present study has been taken up to find out the extent and determinants of environmental disclosure by bellwether companies in India. To fulfil the objectives, all the 30 leading companies included in Sensitive Index (Sensex) of Bombay Stock Exchange in India are considered for the study. Information pertaining to seven broad categories of environment-related elements was sourced from Annual Reports for the periond 2017-18 to 2021-22. To examine the extent of environmental disclosure, ‘Word Count’ method has been followed. The results indicate that ‘Environmental Action Support’, is the area on which many companies have reported more followed by ‘Prevention of Environmental Damage’. Regression analyis has been used to ascertain the determinants of environmental disclosure. It is found that age, industry type, profitability, firm size and dividend determine the level of environmental disclosure. Keywords - Corporate Social Responsibility, SENSEX, Environmental Disclosure, Environmental Disclosure Index, Ownership, Profitability, Firm Size, Industry Type