India Ranks 176th on the
Environmental Performance Index.
The Corporate Story Is Different.
The Environmental Performance Index (EPI), produced by Yale and Columbia, ranks countries. MSCI and Sustainalytics score disclosure quality from desks. Nobody tells you what's actually happening inside Indian companies at outcome level. TERRA Score™ does: 1,200+ companies scored individually across 34 indicators, with field verification across 150+ Indian cities. Scores range from 10 to 76. The variance within India is the story.
scored per company
weight profiles
with mathematical triggers
Nobody Can Tell You What's
Actually Happening.
India's government publicly rejected the EPI's 176th ranking. But no data-backed counter-narrative exists at corporate level. Global ESG raters scrape reports from desks and score disclosure quality. The EPI uses satellite data and global models with zero corporate-level resolution. India's MoEF has offered no alternative. The result: the world's fifth-largest economy has no credible, company-level environmental intelligence system.
The pairwise correlation between major ESG raters is only 0.54 (Berg, Koelbel & Rigobon, Review of Finance, 2022). For credit rating agencies, the equivalent figure is 0.99. This level of disagreement means ESG ratings capture fundamentally different constructs depending on the provider, with direct consequences for capital allocation.
TERRA fills this gap: 1,200+ Indian companies scored individually across 34 sub-indicators, with ground-verified data from 150+ Indian cities and 2.4 billion geo-tagged environmental data points.
Country-Level Rankings, Zero Company-Level Resolution
The EPI ranks India 176th using satellite data and global models. But it cannot tell you whether Tata Steel or Reliance Industries is driving that number. TERRA scores each company individually, showing which are outperforming and which are dragging the national average down.
No Sub-National Context in Global Frameworks
Water stress in Jharkhand's Singhbhum is classified differently from Odisha's Jajpur under WRI Aqueduct. CSR impact in tribal Jharkhand is qualitatively different from impact in urban Mumbai. No major ESG framework integrates district-level environmental, social, and governance indicators.
Zero Ground Truth Verification
When a company claims clean water for 12,000 households, no ESG rater checks. In our field assessment of one such claim, household surveys found approximately 7,500 beneficiaries reached (not 12,000), one of three check dams silted, and demographics that were mixed urban/peri-urban, not tribal as implied.
Five Dimensions. 34 Indicators.
One Auditable Score.
Each dimension is scored 0-100 using sector-specific weights across 12 industry profiles. Indicators are scored against absolute benchmarks anchored to physical limits, regulatory thresholds, and best-practice standards. Anti-gaming adjusted. Reported with confidence bands.
STERRA = 0.20 T + 0.28 E + 0.18 R¹ + 0.22 R² + 0.12 A
What the Data Shows Across India's Listed Universe
TERRA Scores range from 10 to 76 across India's BRSR-mandated companies. No company has yet reached the "Leader" band (80-100). The variance within sectors, and between sectors, is the intelligence that fund managers, corporate boards, and ESG consultants need.
Sector Median Scores
Widest Score Spreads
The wide spreads within sectors confirm that data quality and ESG commitment vary enormously, even among companies under the same BRSR mandate. This within-sector variance is invisible to country-level rankings.
The Claim-vs-Reality Gap™
AI reads each report in two passes: Pass 1 extracts 42 quantitative data fields. Pass 2 classifies every narrative claim against a rubric of 120+ pre-coded phrases mapped to 5 intensity levels. CvR measures the distance between them. 15 detection modes classify how divergence manifests, from Inflated Narrative to Certificate Offsetting to Trajectory Masking.
Better Measurement Redirects Resources to Where They Matter Most
TERRA does not exist to rank companies. It exists to change where resources go. When a company sees its CvR Gap, its Geographic Depth Score, its VDI breakdown, it faces a clear choice: close the gap by moderating language, or close the gap by improving performance. The companies that choose the latter create real impact.
Capital Redirected to Real Impact
When Geographic Depth Score reveals that CSR spend is 70% concentrated in Tier-1 cities while BRSR claims reference "deep rural impact," the reallocation decision becomes data-driven, not political.
Risk Identified Before It Becomes a Crisis
A CvR Gap of 0.65 is a quantified measure of exposure to the next investigative journalist, activist investor, or regulatory inquiry that compares claims against data.
Excluded Communities Become Visible
VDI data reveals which populations Indian CSR is systematically underserving. Scheduled Tribes (MPI headcount 50.6%) receive a fraction of CSR spend that urban populations receive. The multiplier system makes exclusion actionable.
Honest Companies Get Recognised
CvR Mode #10 (Process-Constrained Honesty) rewards companies operating within genuine physical constraints who use measured communication backed by data. Honesty becomes a competitive advantage.
When companies know exactly where they are weak, the rational response is to get stronger. Better environmental and social outcomes are not the aspiration of TERRA. They are the structural consequence of giving companies data granular enough to act on.
Four Use Cases, One Dataset
Fund Managers & Institutional Investors
Screen India equity portfolios for ESG risk using 34 indicators, sector benchmarks, and CvR exposure flags. SEBI ESG fund compliance reporting with data that goes beyond disclosure quality.
Corporate Boards & Sustainability Teams
Benchmark your company against sector peers using independent scoring. Identify CvR gaps before external scrutiny. Understand where you stand among India's 1,200+ scored companies.
ESG Consultants & Big 4 Advisory
Differentiate your advisory practice with proprietary India ESG data. Use TERRA as the diagnostic substrate for client engagements: gap analysis, BRSR remediation, improvement roadmaps.
Academics & Policy Researchers
Access India's largest corporate ESG dataset: 1,200+ companies, 34 indicators, CvR analysis, sector distributions. Suitable for research papers, policy briefs, and cross-country ESG comparison studies.
Three Ways to Start
Find out where your company stands among India's 1,200+ scored companies
Receive a 25-30 page TERRA Scorecard with full dimension breakdown, CvR walkthrough, anti-gaming results, sector peer benchmarking, and improvement pathway.
Schedule a Briefing →Screen your India portfolio against 34 ESG indicators
Portfolio-level TERRA analysis across your India equity holdings. Sector benchmarks, CvR exposure flags, and narrative alignment distribution for your watchlist.
Schedule a Briefing →Access TERRA data for your client engagements or research
Bulk data access, sector deep-dives, API feeds, and methodology documentation. Suitable for Big 4 advisory, academic research, and policy analysis.
Schedule a Briefing →Or, send us a message
We will respond within 48 hours with a TERRA Scorecard for a company in your sector of interest, or a methodology briefing, depending on your use case.
TERRA covers India's 1,200+ BRSR-mandated companies today. The methodology is designed to extend to Brazil (CVM), South Africa (King IV), Mexico (CNBV), Malaysia (Bursa), Kenya (NSE), Indonesia (OJK), and Japan (TSE). The core scoring engine is universal. The context layer, including vulnerability multipliers, regulatory anchors, and field verification, is market-specific.