The present study makes several important contributions. First, the study is one of the few to take a more comprehensive and predictive modelling approach using a relatively large sample of firm data covering a relatively longer time period (five years) in assessing the effects of ownership and board composition on CSR disclosure of Indian public‐listed firms. Thus, this study adds to the limited pool of evidence on CSR disclosure by Indian firms. Second, from a theoretical perspective, our results support both agency and institutional rationalisations. Independent directors are found to hold a more positive stance towards CSR disclosure, suggesting their reputational risk concerns as predicted by the agency perspective may encourage their support of more transparent practices. Interestingly, it appears that despite the traditional settings of an environment where corporate governance may still be evolving in India (World Bank, 2010), independent directors and CEO duality still have significant effects on CSR disclosure. Our findings also suggest that different ownership structures are associated with different types of CSR disclosure which indicates investors as principals tend to monitor and align voluntary disclosure in their interests. For instance, we find government‐owned firms tend to place greater importance on community‐ and employee‐related information as expected given their orientation towards national goals on socio‐economic and community development. Also, our findings indicate that independent directors may be more neutral to the type of information disclosed given that the level of board independence was significantly and positively associated with three out of the four CSR categories, i.e. community, environment and product/service disclosure. Nevertheless, more independent boards are also seen to increase CSR disclosures. Our finding also provides support for institutional theory where mimetic pressures posed by the 2009 NGV on CSR (MCA, 2009b) and coercive pressures from the mandatory guidelines imposed on CPSEs (DPE, 2010) may explain an increasing trend in CSR disclosure among government‐owned firms over 2010 and 2011.