Integrated Approach to Sustainable Growth
For Reliance, its growth strategy is an optimal convergence of financial and nonfinancial parameters and opportunities. While the more visible impact is demonstrated in financial health, the non-financial parameters work in close conjunction with linear parameters to directly impact revenues. The Company’s ability to balance and tap the opportunities across these parameters is what defines our long-term sustainable value creation potential.
Given its spread across diverse businesses, Reliance experiences various internal and external factors including technology and research imperatives, maintaining supportive community relations, staying abreast of changing customer needs, talent management and contributing to reducing environmental impact. This in turn has a bearing on our financial performance.
Reliance understands the importance of monitoring these aspects and to predict, pre-empt and respond with agility to emerging risks and opportunities. The Company adopts a conjunctive approach to draw on the interconnectedness of the capitals to address business realities today, and achieve future aspirations.
This approach has helped the Company take better, informed decisions to grow business.
To ensure greater transparency and accountability to its stakeholders and further fuel its commitment towards sustainable business practices and models, Reliance integrated ESG goals in its approach to creating value. The disclosures made in the report are shaped by industry best practices and universally acceptable standards and frameworks such as GRI, IIRC, TCFD, SDGs and WEF-IBC metrics. Reliance is one of the early firms to commit to WEF-IBC, an over-arching framework that aims to converge leading sustainability standards and bring greater comparability and consistency to the Company’s ESG reporting disclosures.
In this report, Reliance has portrayed its
value creation story by aligning to the
six capitals of the Integrated Reporting
Natural Capital 
- Managing environmental impacts
- Air emissions management
- Water management
- Waste management
- Energy efficiency operations
- Renewable and alternative energy
- Ecosystems and biodiversity
- Contributing to circular economy
Human Capital 
- Prioritising employee well-being
- Ensuring health and safety
- Robust governance and code of conduct
- Fostering diversity and inclusion
- Nurturing people-first culture
Manufactured Capital 
- Digital inclusion and innovation
- Smart manufacturing
- Raw material security
- Data security and privacy
- Managing systemic risk and disruption
Intellectual Capital 
- Leveraging intellectual capital to fight COVID-19
- Innovation and technology
- Research and Technology
(R&T) focus on:
- Clean Energy & Climate Action
- Circular Economy
- Bio-Innovation
Financial Capital 
- Economic performance
- Business performance
- Largest ever capital raise in India
- Robust balance sheet and high liquidity
Social and
Relationship Capital 
- Community development
- Customer satisfaction
- Supply chain management
Standing with the Nation
Today India is facing one of the biggest challenges ever – the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus. This is a time when Reliance stands strong with India and reaffirms its commitment to offer support in whatever way possible to help the country navigate through these trying times. Every member of the Reliance family is guided by the mission ‘Corona Haarega, India Jeetega’.
The Company’s first and foremost priority is to support the country in this hour of need. Reliance Foundation has supported the setting up & management of over 2,300 beds across various locations including setting up a 1,000-bed COVID care facility in Jamnagar. Earlier, Reliance, in partnership with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), set up India’s first exclusive COVID-19 hospital in just two weeks – a national record. Managed by the Reliance Foundation Hospital, the facility now accommodates 875 beds including 145 ICU beds in Mumbai.
Through the year, more than 1,00,000 masks and PPEs have been manufactured and supplied to health workers and caregivers per day. Reliance is providing free fuel to emergency vehicles. Reliance Life Sciences has enhanced India’s COVID-19 testing capabilities by developing its own confirmatory tests and is in the process of expanding this testing capacity. Through Mission Anna Seva, Reliance has provided over 5.5 crore meals to frontline workers and vulnerable communities. While COVID-19 has disrupted livelihoods, Reliance added over 75,000 jobs to the economy. While Reliance is committed to serving the nation, its focus on the health and safety of its employees and their families remains unwavering. It continues to focus on ensuring the health and safety of its employees and their families. The Company, thus, announced the R-Surakshaa vaccination programme for all eligible employees and their family members. Deploying an extremely efficient and seamless process, Reliance has been able to vaccinate more than 50,000 citizens in its Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital.
The brave employees of Reliance Retail are working round-the-clock to deliver essential supplies to millions of Indians across 200 cities. Jio is connecting over 400 million Indians and thousands of organisations, supporting workfrom- home, study-from-home and healthcare-from-home with appropriate solutions. Powered by automation and network virtualisation, Jio has ensured zero impact on its network despite challenges of staff availability and COVID-related restrictions. The Company’s plants, ports and sites are working at full utilisation to keep the wheels of the economy moving and to ensure India’s fuel and energy security. The entire organisation has come together – right from engineering, construction, corporate services, human resources and finance to commercial and security services and corporate affairs – to do everything in its capacity to help fellow Indians.
Reliance firmly believes that India will beat the pandemic and emerge stronger and more resilient. The Company is also optimistic that the post-COVID world will see India bounce back as one of the fastest growing economies in the world – one that will continue creating multiple opportunities, developing infrastructure and providing resources for its 1.3 billion people.
The pandemic has created a dearth of medical oxygen in the country. To help India overcome the scarcity, facilities at the Jamnagar refineries have been repurposed to deliver 1,000 MT of medicalgrade oxygen per day to be supplied to states, which is expected to benefit over 1,00,000 people per day. This makes it one of the largest producers of medical-grade oxygen from a single location in the country. Reliance engineers are making smart logistical modifications to rail and road transport to overcome bottlenecks and ensure oxygen reaches those in need.
Business Resilience during COVID-19
The cascading effect of COVID-19 on the global and Indian economy has been hard. Despite the challenges, Reliance has been able to garner significant foreign investments and raise capital and is net debt free today.
Operationally for key businesses it was a year of two halves. O2C and Retail business were impacted in the first-half due to demand destruction and operational constraints. Sharp rebound in economic activity in the secondhalf helped the businesses deliver a resilient full year performance. Digital Services business has been a key life-line for India during the pandemic and delivered robust growth in operational and financial performance for the year.
In the past year, Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail raised `152,056 crore and `47,265 crore, respectively, from marquee global investors such as Facebook, Google, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, GIC, TPG , L Catterton, PIF, Intel Capital and Qualcomm Ventures.
Global energy leader, bp, invested `7,629 crore for a 49% stake in the Company’s fuel retailing business. The joint venture between Reliance and bp will build on the Company’s current fuel retailing network of 1,400 sites across India. It aims to be a leader in mobility and low-carbon solutions, bringing cleaner and affordable options to Indian consumers, facilitated by digital and technology solutions.
The challenges of COVID-19 notwithstanding, India remains one of the world’s most significant economies powered by its people and growing opportunities. Through FY 2021 -22, Reliance will continue to build a digitalfirst, world-class company focused on value creation that broadens people’s access to financial well-being, while running its purpose-driven operations to address India’s COVID-19 related needs. In keeping with the vision of Shri Dhirubhai Ambani, Founder Chairman, the Company will continue to foster strong ecosystems and grow holistically led by a multi-stakeholder approach.
Stakeholders – At the Core of Reliance’s Growth Strategy
Since inception, the Company has been committed to sustainable growth. As Reliance grows, so does its responsibility towards its stakeholders – customers, employees, suppliers and partners, governments and regulatory bodies, investors and shareholders and community members. It is important for the Company to understand the opinions of people most relevant to its businesses. The Company, therefore, engages with all its stakeholders regularly, has transparent dialogues with them, addresses their concerns and endeavours to meet their expectations.
Stakeholder Engagement approach
| Key Stakeholders | Customers | Supporting Communities | Employees | Suppliers | NGOs | Investors and Shareholders | Government and Regulatory Authorities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Importance |
Customers are at the core of Reliance’s business and it is imperative to know their needs and expectations and strive to meet them |
Reliance works towards delivering value to the local communities and to strengthen its social license to operate |
For Reliance, employees are the backbone of the organisation and a key competitive edge Reliance provides safe work environment to employees and helps them meet their aspirations |
Reliance fosters long term relationship with its suppliers and ensures compliance to policies related to Business Partner Code of Conduct |
Reliance works in close collaboration with NGOs to ensure holistic growth and widening the reach of our goals |
Reliance is committed to creating value for its shareholders |
Government’s policies and regulations impact Reliance’s businesses and provide new opportunities to achieve its mission |
Functions |
Business Teams: Retail, Digital services, O2C, Oil and Gas E&P |
Manufacturing division CSR teams, Reliance Foundation, Reliance Foundation Youth Sports and Reliance Foundation Institution of Education and Research |
Human resources, corporate services, medical services and security |
|
Reliance Foundation, Reliance Foundation Youth Sports and Reliance Foundation Institution of Education and Research, CSR Divisions: Retail, Digital Services, O2C, Oil and Gas E&P |
|
|
Mode of Engagement |
Meetings, surveys and web portals |
Meetings, newsletters, surveys, field work and trainings, digital services / virtual engagement |
Personal/group interactions, mailers and trainings |
Meetings and Annual Report |
Meetings and correspondence |
Meetings, conferences and correspondence |
Industry representations, filings, correspondence, meetings |
Frequency of Engagement |
Annually, monthly, need-based, real-time |
Annually, quarterly, monthly, ongoing partnerships |
Annually, quarterly, monthly, need-based, real-time, on-command |
Real-time, on-command, need-based |
Annually, ongoing partnerships |
Annually, half-yearly, quarterly, monthly, needbased |
Annually, quarterly, monthly, need-based |
Integrated Thinking and Interplay of Capitals
Reliance takes a collective view of all six capitals and their interdependencies while striving to create lasting stakeholder value. The Company has presented its performance against each capital and the material trade-offs between the capitals below.
| Natural Capital |
Human Capital |
Manufactured Capital |
Intellectual Capital |
Financial Capital |
Social and Relationship Capital |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
 |
Employee volunteering in recycling initiatives | Ensuring resource efficiency and operational excellence – which are the Company’s functional and strategic core growth levers | R&D investments to promote clean energy and circular economy, waste plastic to road, Algae to Oil | Investment in the clean energy space to accelerate growth | Community-focused environmental initiatives such as rainwater harvesting In FY 2020-21 over 6,400 ha was irrigated with rainwater harvesting and conservation initiatives |
|
Employee volunteers supporting responsible projects, such as increasing the use of reusable and recycled packaging |  |
Systems with IoT-based technology to predict and mitigate safety incidents |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
|
Products and services designed to serve societal challenges and address them effectively |
| |
Development of environmentally sustainable technology and products such as R|Elan™ Fabric made by recycling PET bottles | Learning and growth opportunities to upskill and work on cuttingedge research and new product development | Collaboration with Google to develop an entry-level affordable smartphone with an optimised operating system |  |
Investment focused on R&D and promotion of new businesses |
|
| |
Investments in renewable energy and biofuels initiatives to create alternate fuel strategy |
|
Optimising sites regularly to take advantage of feedstock flexibility to enhance profitability |
|
 |
CSR spend – `1,140 crore |
| |
|
During the COVID-linked lockdown, Reliance Retail and Jio employees continued to deliver essential services | Delivering products and services to meet customer needs and satisfaction | Deployed innovative engineering skills to repurpose units to produce medical-grade oxygen, overcome logistic bottlenecks to meet requirements for India’s COVID battle | Investment in Jio platforms to accelerate the provision of India specific, affordable and accessible digital services, and promote digital entrepreneurship |  |