Name: Komal Gupta, Pahrul Sharma
Country: India

Year: 2026
Volume: VOL-17 , ISSUE NO.-2 Special Issue July-2026 (SN)
Page Number: 64-76
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22342342

Sustainable investment has expanded within the Indian mutual fund industry, yet evidence on whether environmental, social, and governance-oriented funds deliver superior risk-adjusted performance remains inconclusive. This study compares 20 Indian ESG equity mutual funds with 20 traditional equity funds matched by asset management company, investment category, and approximate fund size over the 63-month period from January 2020 to March 2025. Monthly net asset value data are evaluated through conventional performance measures and the Carhart four-factor model, which controls for market, size, value, and momentum exposures. The study also examines fund behavior during the COVID-19 market decline, the subsequent recovery, and the inflation and interest-rate shock of 2022. To investigate the regulatory relevance of the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting framework, pre- and post-April 2022 performance is compared through subperiod regressions, a Chow test, a BRSR dummy-va