Tata Motors has signed a five-year partnership with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to automate and digitize its sustainability and environmental reporting. The initiative is part of the automaker’s larger push toward achieving its net-zero goals while meeting increasingly stringent government compliance standards.
At the heart of this effort lies Prakriti, a new AI-powered platform developed using TCS’s Intelligent Urban Exchange (IUX) technology. Once fully operational, the system will automatically collect and process Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) data from all Tata Motors facilities across India.
Key Takeaways
- The Deal: A five-year strategic collaboration between TCS and Tata Motors.
- The Technology: An AI-driven sustainability platform called Prakriti, powered by TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange (IUX).
- The Goal: To fully automate the capture and reporting of ESG and sustainability data across Tata Motors’ operations and supply chain.
- The Problem It Solves: Manual data collection—especially from suppliers contributing to Scope 3 emissions—has long been slow, fragmented, and error-prone. This platform aims to fix that.
- The Compliance: Built-in reporting aligned with SEBI’s Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) framework ensures ready compliance with India’s updated sustainability mandates.
The Challenge of Manual Reporting
For large manufacturers like Tata Motors, gathering accurate and consistent sustainability data has always been a complex task. The company has made ambitious commitments—reaching net-zero emissions by 2040 for passenger vehicles and by 2045 for commercial vehicles—yet the path there requires precision in every measurement.
Until recently, most of this data, covering energy consumption, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions, was collected manually. The process was time-consuming and sometimes inconsistent, especially when dealing with hundreds of suppliers contributing data from different systems and geographies.
The urgency to modernize has only grown. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) now mandates the country’s top 1,000 listed companies to file a detailed BRSR report. This format demands a full picture of a company’s environmental and social impact—including the often-elusive footprint of its entire value chain.
How the New Platform Works
Jointly developed by Tata Motors and TCS, the Prakriti platform will function as a unified sustainability intelligence hub.
Data Collection: The system will automatically capture real-time environmental data from manufacturing plants and other operational units.
AI-Powered Insights: Using AI and machine learning from TCS’s IUX technology, the platform will analyze this data, helping Tata Motors compute its carbon footprint with far greater accuracy.
Automated Reporting: A key function is automated ESG report generation—ensuring timely and compliant submissions under SEBI’s BRSR guidelines.
Beyond the Factories: What makes Prakriti stand out is its extension to the supply chain. It will help track Scope 3 emissions, the indirect greenhouse gases from suppliers and logistics partners. These are typically the hardest to monitor yet account for the largest portion of total emissions in most industries.
Voices from the Companies
SJR Kutty, Chief Sustainability Officer at Tata Motors, explained that this initiative supports the Tata Group’s Project Aalingana, which emphasizes decarbonization and circular economy principles. He highlighted that collaborating with technology partners like TCS enables Tata Motors to “embed intelligence and automation” across its sustainability ecosystem.
Adding to that, Rajesh Kannan, CEO of Tata Motors Digital.AI Labs Ltd., noted that digitalization now provides the “robust data, insights, and analytics” necessary to run operations responsibly and transparently.
For TCS, this isn’t unfamiliar ground. The Intelligent Urban Exchange (IUX) platform, which underpins Prakriti, has been used in smart city management systems—handling everything from energy optimization to transportation flows. Its flexibility has now been tailored specifically for the complex requirements of automotive manufacturing.
As Anupam Singhal, President of Manufacturing at TCS, put it, the intent is to use AI to “embed intelligence, transparency, and accountability” across the manufacturing value chain—helping companies operate in cleaner, more responsible ways.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the Prakriti platform?
Prakriti is Tata Motors’ new sustainability software system, powered by TCS technology. It collects, monitors, and reports all environmental and social data from across the company’s operations.
What is TCS Intelligent Urban Exchange (IUX)?
TCS IUX is an AI- and IoT-based analytics platform designed to aggregate data from multiple sources—like sensors, plants, or city networks—and generate actionable insights. While originally developed for smart cities, it’s now customized for ESG and sustainability reporting in manufacturing.
What is ESG and BRSR?
ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance, representing standards used to evaluate a company’s ethical and sustainability performance. The BRSR, mandated by SEBI, is a detailed disclosure framework requiring major Indian firms to report their ESG data transparently.
What are Tata Motors’ net-zero goals?
The company aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 for its passenger vehicle division and by 2045 for its commercial vehicle business.
What are Scope 3 emissions?
Scope 3 emissions are indirect greenhouse gas emissions produced outside a company’s own operations—often from suppliers, product transportation, or product use. They’re usually the largest and most complex part of emissions tracking.
