Highlights FY 2021-22

“The COVID-19 pandemic is a humanitarian crisis. It has tested the very spirit of humanity. But even in the darkest hour, our spirit has shone bright. We, as a people, have come together and fought this battle with immense empathy and compassion”.

Smt Nita M. Ambani

Founder & Chairperson of Reliance Foundation

Our Support to the People in Shahdol and Kakinada

Reliance has extended all efforts to provide end-to-end support in the Shahdol and Kotma regions in India. Under Mission COVID Suraksha, over 50,000 masks and 5,000 hand sanitisers were distributed to the frontline workers, community, and police officials in these regions. 18 oxygen concentrators were handed over to the Shahdol District Administration by Reliance Foundation and Coal Bed Methane (CBM) CSR team.

As part of Mission Anna Seva, more than 3,000 dry ration kits were distributed to the community, labourers and agencies working for COVID relief in Shahdol. The team supported the establishment and operation of two COVID Care Centres in Shahdol.

The Company provided financial support to the District Administration in Shahdol to purchase an Emergency Ambulance for the Police and undertake other COVID-19 related relief activities in the district. The CSR team in Shahdol also extended support to 15 children who had lost one or both parents to COVID-19. They provided an allowance of `2,000 per month to every impacted child. In coordination with CBM HR, the team provided 1,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the district health department to support the community vaccination drive in Shahdol.

Initiatives by Reliance equipped the villagers to better handle the crisis with awareness about precautionary measures like social distancing, avoiding social gatherings, proper washing of hands and the importance of sanitation.

Reliance Foundation installed a 10 KL Oxygen plant at District Government Hospital, Kakinada, which can supply medical-grade oxygen to about 200 patients for 48 hours. The Foundation also took up community vaccination drives providing free vaccination to all eligible persons in the nearby villages.

Extending Critical Care to Communities during COVID-19

During COVID-19, Reliance Foundation connected rural communities with government officials and experts to address various issues such as enrolling for government schemes, agriculture and allied services inputs, securing farm machinery at subsidised costs and access to temporary procurement centres and markets. RFIS also undertook efforts to raise awareness about COVID-19, supported employment drives to meet temporary paramedical staffing needs and facilitated the availability of medicines and other requirements. Foundation provided specialist help and advice to Gram Panchayat leaders in rural communities on schemes for financial support and livelihood opportunities through virtual conferences for farmers, fishing communities, livestock owners and migrant labourers. These services reached close to four million people in rural India.

The Mobile Medical Units (MMUs) of Reliance Foundation helped raise awareness about precautionary measures in rural communities while delivering healthcare services. Information on COVID-19 vaccination centres and awareness about symptoms were shared across 20 states.

Our Support to the People in Jamnagar

Reliance set up Gujarat’s first paediatric COVID-19 hospital at Jamnagar. Around 50,000 PPE kits, N95 masks, triple layer masks and medical examination rubber gloves were handed over to the Guru Gobind Singh Hospital. The Padana veterinary hospital provided consultation support to 19,000+ animal cases from 50 surrounding villages.

Women’s groups were supported under the Swashray initiative in preparing and selling healthy food products that earned them a good amount. The construction of a primary school building along the lines of ‘Building as Learning Aid’ concept in Lalwadi was undertaken. In Jamnagar and Dwarka districts, HIV/AIDS affected children were given nutritional kits every quarter. In Dwarka and Khambhaliya, two ambulances were made available to reduce response time during emergencies.

Delivering Health Services to the Underserved Across India

Reliance aims to provide quality and affordable healthcare to society’s most vulnerable members. Reliance’s health outreach programme also provides primary health services to the underprivileged communities across the plant locations in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh through 12 MMUs and several health camps. Through MMUs and camps, over 2.4 lakh consultations were provided during the year.

Under the Government of Madhya Pradesh’s “Adopt an Anganwadi” initiative, Reliance Foundation has renovated and beautified 6 Anganwadis or childcare centres, in the state during FY 2021-22. The Foundation has beautified and renovated 53 Anganwadis till date. The renovation and beautification of these Anganwadis are helping the children learn and develop in clean, healthy, and sanitized environments.

Reliance is increasing focus on women’s healthcare and well-being progressively. Initiatives such as ‘HerCircle’ and ‘One-Stop Breast Clinic' were launched during FY 2020-21 to strengthen infrastructure for women’s health. HerCircle aims to create a network of women by sharing meaningful content that include motivating films, life-skill development guides and expert-led masterclasses to inspire and empower women, including entrepreneurs. The platform has touched 50 million lives within a year of its launch.

For our overall COVID-19 response, please refer to Read More

During FY 2021-22, over 121 lakh m³ of water harvesting capacity was created through the construction or upgradation of facilities such as earthen or masonry dams and check dams, agricultural ponds and open wells. As a result, over 5,600 hectares of land is estimated to get guaranteed irrigation for at least two agricultural seasons. Consequently, 364 villages now have better access to drinking water.

Furthermore, Reliance is augmenting rural households’ nutritious intake by promoting Reliance Nutrition Gardens (RNG), which are modest kitchen or backyard gardens.

Reliance aims to augment the lives of farmers, fishermen and women, livestock owners, and rural youth across the country by delivering critical information, thereby protecting livelihoods. Initiatives such as interactive awareness, broadcast dissemination services, and troubleshooting programmes assist the rural population living in hinterlands to stay informed. The initiative engages with over 1,000 knowledge partners, including research institutes, universities, specialist technical agencies, and grassroots organisations. Understandable and straightforward information in vernacular languages is circulated using numerous digital platforms such as voice messages, WhatsApp, Jiochat, and audio- video conferencing.

Improving Livelihoods through Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs)

Reliance Foundation has undertaken various initiatives to support, promote, nurture, and incubate FPOs across the country. The Company also assists these farmers in developing and strengthening market links to enhance their incomes by enabling them to form FPOs through the Foundation. To date, Reliance Foundation is engaged intensively with over 100 FPOs. Around 63% of FPO members reported an incremental annual income of `40,000 or more in the last year due to their association with the Foundation. These FPOs have a combined annual revenue of more than `114 crore. Business activities and promotion of FPOs in respective locations have increased the source of income and have improved the economic situation of farmers by giving them better bargaining power, reducing the cost of production, and providing linkages.

Reliance Foundation's Impact Assessment for Water Interventions

Reliance Foundation’s flagship programme of Bharat India Jodo (BIJ) has worked on water interventions for the past ten years. This initiative works with communities affected by variable rainfall, repeated droughts, dependency on rainfed agriculture, severe soil degradation, migration for manual work, lack of basic facilities and uncertain earnings. BIJ’s initiatives are broadly based on four aspects: organising and capacitating the community, participatory budgeting, collaboration with Gram Panchayats and the Government for synergies and building community capacities for water resources, including critical support for water harvesting and management.

The capacities created through these activities have resulted in improved water availability for agriculture and household needs. Based on a study conducted, the programme has demonstrated impact and contribution to the holistic development of the villages in the following ways:

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For 89% of the farmers
Rain was no longer a primary source for irrigation

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79% of the farmers
Reported an increase in area under assured irrigation in the last five years

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54% of the farmers
Adopted efficient irrigation techniques

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85% of the farmers
Could crop their fields two or more times a year

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More than 50% of the farmers
Cultivate three or more types of crops annually

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89% intervention village residents
Have the primary source of water within 200m from their house

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75% intervention village residents
Reported reduction in the inconvenience caused to women in fetching water

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Towards Water Security through Shramdaan

Although the region of Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand receives ample rain during monsoons, lack of proper storage and irrigation left the Kharwan village often high and dry during summers. Reliance Foundation engaged with the Gram Panchayat to mobilise the community to come together to build an irrigation canal to ensure a more consistent supply of water. Smt. Jagdamba Devi, Sarpanch and 30 women and youth volunteers from the village worked relentlessly for 28 days to reconstruct the 1.5 km long irrigation canal through shramdaan to address water scarcity between May and June 2021. This inspiring display of community participation has ensured ease of irrigation, benefiting 85 households in the village.

Sports for Development

The ‘Sports for Development’ programme promotes sports activities to achieve critical outcomes such as learning and developing leadership skills and improving health and empowerment among children and youth in India. An integrated set of interventions under this programme offers aspiring athletes in India a strong and free resource to develop their skills and abilities in various sports.

Enabling Youth through Sports: RFYS-AIFC Workshops Aid Nagaland, Arunachal and JK Football Coaches

In conjunction with the Association of Indian Football Coaches (AIFC), Reliance Foundation Youth Sports (RFYS) organised a three-day course for 33 coaches from Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. Tangbao Singto, Technical Director and Assistant Coach of Indian Super League (ISL) team Hyderabad FC, well-known in Indian football circles, helped organise the event. Another such workshop was organised for 35 Jammu and Kashmir coaches assisted by the former Indian football player, Mehrajuddin Wadoo and former Indian national youth team coach, Sajid Dar. The camps educated participants on topics such as acceptable behaviour, effective communication, player scouting, and safeguarding youngsters from all types of abuse.

Through Reliance Foundation, the Company extended support to communities impacted by cyclones -Tauktae, Yaas, Jawad- and flood-affected communities in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, and Kerala by distributing dry ration kits, livestock shelters during FY 2021- 22. The activities were organised in collaboration with government agencies such as INCOIS, IMD, agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, and Jio and RRVL. Reliance also mobilised its trained disaster response volunteers to respond to the community’s needs swiftly and effectively. Reliance’s disaster response was given ISO Certification 9001:2015.

Education and Skill Development: Bridging the Literacy Divide

Reliance Foundation believes in quality education for all, irrespective of their financial, geographical, and cultural challenges. To achieve its mission of providing education to children across the nation, Reliance delivers quality education to 15,000+ children annually through 14 Reliance Foundation Schools, including Dhirubhai Ambani International School, to fulfil its mission of educating children across India; 9,395 online courses and 12,903 webinars have been completed by around 754 teachers and 126 non-teaching staff of 13 Reliance Foundation Schools on technology platforms.

With the goal of empowering India's brightest youth with the potential to lead India’s technologically driven growth, the Reliance Foundation Scholarships were awarded to 76 students in August 2021, to full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computer Sciences. This year the scholarships will be awarded to 100 students of AI, Computer Sciences, Mathematics and Computing and Electrical / Electronic Engineering.

Empowering through Education

The CSR initiatives across Shahdol CBM, Dahej Manufacturing Division and Model Economic Township Limited (METL) are focused on active engagement with the students in local schools and colleges. One notable activity is to assist students in appearing for entrance examinations of prestigious schools such as Navodaya and Sainik schools. The projects helped children keep up with studies through remedial classes run by volunteers in their villages during the lockdown.

Reliance’s CSR team at Nagothane launched the Lakshya initiative to support students who cannot afford private coaching classes. The Lakshya initiative, started in 2015, prepares students from surrounding villages for competitive exams for securing jobs in services like the Police, Army, Navy, Railway, SSC, and Banking. It includes on-ground training provided by subject matter experts like security personnel, Reliance Foundation school teachers, counsellors and others. The preparatory platform trains students free of cost. The CSR team also aims to address the inferiority complex among rural students. They work with them to build their self- confidence and help shape their careers. The team provides required guidance and encouragement to students to prepare them for jobs that can provide them with security, respect, and social standing in their communities.

To date, 114 students have enrolled in the training programme, of which 21 students (23.94%) have qualified for the competitive examinations conducted by the Government, with female candidates outnumbering the male candidates.

Reviving and Nurturing India’s Art, Culture and Heritage

India is a land of diverse cultures. Reliance through the Foundation endeavours to ensure that the youth appreciate and connect with the country’s rich heritage and arts. Reliance Foundation defines ways to protect and promote India’s priceless heritage to sustain and make art and culture relevant to the younger generation. This rich art and cultural ethos runs across all of Reliance’s businesses.

Reliance collaborated with pioneering designer Ritu Kumar and Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) to charter a new, untried interpretation of India’s crafts and textiles. It took the country’s vibrant and diverse culture beyond existing ideas in couture and fashion. This was a novel step to preserve, nurture and celebrate India’s art and textiles heritage.

Employee Volunteering & Social Change

Volunteering is a significant enabler to express and share gratitude, essential for developing resilience in challenging times. At Reliance, volunteering has been a key lever for giving back to the communities. Reliance Foundation continued with the virtual mode of volunteering due to the pandemic. In FY 2021- 22, volunteering was expanded to newer areas of engagement to address present and future challenges. The programmes were crafted and implemented to focus on harnessing skills of the immense people resources and their expertise available within the organisation. The objective of these programmes has been the holistic development of beneficiaries while concentrating on thematic areas of education and capacity building of social organisations. These programmes are congruent with the goals of Reliance Group of Industries and the UN SDGs. Reliance Foundation continued to work extensively with two major beneficiary groups – children and youth. During FY 2021-22, the employee volunteering activities focused on building the capacities of staff members of social development organisations across India. The highlights of the year are as follows:

• This was the third consecutive year for the Month of Good Deeds, which encourages employees and their families to give back to the community by volunteering their time and skills. These sessions reached more than 4,400 children, youth, and NGOs from cities like Giridh and Koderma (Jharkhand), Rourkela, Rajpura, Alibaug and several metros.
• Employees and their families from Jio Digital organised 30 virtual sessions on art and language skills in the second edition of the Jio Digital Monsoon Camp for more than 5,300 children from Jammu, Srinagar, Latur, Tuticorin, Erode and others.
• Volunteers from the Learning and Development team from the Hydrocarbons and Retail divisions located across metros and Nagapattinam, Shillong, Warangal, Begusarai trained 1,000 staff members from NGOs on advanced excel, report writing, stakeholder management etc.
• Virtual sessions on raising awareness on plastic and waste segregation were conducted by expert volunteers in partnership with the Indian Centre for Plastics in the Environment (ICPE). Over 3,800 children attended the sessions, including students from Reliance Foundation schools.

Nearly 21,000 lives have been touched due to the invaluable contribution of Reliance employees and their family members in FY 2021-22.

Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Reliance takes pride in diversified portfolio of businesses spread across Oil and Gas (O2C, E&P), Retail and Digital. The Company relies heavily on its excellence in supply chain management aided by efficient and robust systems and processes to run seamless operations and efficiently manage its vast pool of suppliers and partners.

Managing a Vibrant Supplier Network

To effectively deliver high -quality projects with stringent timelines, managing a substantial number of suppliers located across the globe is key to any company’s success. Reliance ensures regular interface and interactions with its partners and vendors across various levels to address this need. All procurement and Contracting (P&C) activities for Exploration and Production (E&P) Division are primarily governed by contracts signed with the Government of India. E&P Project Development and Operations require highly specialised technical goods and services. Reliance is one of the very few vendors in the world that can cater to these technological and expertise requirements at exceedingly high precision and satisfactory levels.

Through its sustained investment in mega projects and operations, Reliance has contributed to developing India’s chemicals and engineering supplier base. Supporting and encouraging its suppliers to indigenise, expand their capabilities and increase their economic value has always been the focus of the Company. Reliance has procured goods and services worth more than `23,800 crore from indigenous suppliers in FY 2021-22. The Company ensures a high quality of service by working with its contractors to ensure that their employees are competent, and that work is carried out in a safe environment complying with statutory requirements. Some of these initiatives include :

• Standardisation of PPEs for contract workers
• Fair & transparent practices for statutory compliance
• Contractor performance evaluation including Safety and Environment Performance
• Trade & Safety test for all contract workers
• Focus on safety practices and records during new contractor registration
• Weekly visit of safety ambassadors to plants for improvement of contract worker safety
• Training for field personnel on safe handling of hazardous chemicals

Reliance also ensured that COVID-19 vaccinations were made available for the Company’s suppliers and their employees.

Reliance extends support to the local community by encouraging its suppliers to source talent from 'near plant' communities. The Company is conscious about the regeneration and safe disposal of its waste. The total sale of e-waste including used oil and batteries, catalyst and plastic waste to the vendors is authorised by the Central and State Pollution Control Boards (CPCB/SPCB) for efficient and environmentally friendly recycling and disposal of that waste. Waste materials like wood, paper, metal, etc., are also recovered or recycled.

Transparent and Robust Process for Identification and Evaluation of Suppliers

Reliance follows an in-depth and robust evaluation process for its suppliers that involves sending out a global notice inviting Expression of Interest (EOI) that publishes the requirements of all major goods and services. The EOIs received are then evaluated based on parameters such as technical competence, past experiences, HSE performance, quality system and financial strength for shortlisting bidders in response to the issuance of Request for Proposal.

The Supplier Code of Conduct, developed by Reliance, forms the basis of the Company’s relationship with its suppliers. Reliance’s belief that its suppliers need to comply with Labour and Human rights, Health and Safety, Environmental Protection, Ethical Conduct, Business Integrity and Confidentiality Laws and Standards is reflected in its Supplier Code of Conduct. The Company facilitates a range of measures to comply with the prevalent Anti- Money Laundering, Anti-Bribery and Prevention of Corruption Act and the Supplier Code of Conduct. The compliance function and Ethics and Compliance Task Force (ECTF) have built a strong capability to undertake regulatory compliance checks, counterparty checks, real-time screening of any suspicious internal transactions, and investigations of reported incidents to curb any unlawful behaviour by its suppliers.

All suppliers are compliant with the Reliance Group Business Partner Code of Conduct (BPCOC). Reliance strictly adheres to all the procurement processes for the contracts signed with the Government of India.

Third-party vendors are identified and evaluated based on their track record and capability of meeting the Company standards. Reliance is moving towards a per-piece/per- pallet based contract from the cost- plus contracts to enable a significant cost advantage. The operational performance of these vendors, once onboarded, are continuously measured and monitored against defined parameters, and corrective actions demanded where necessary.

Supplier engagement is an overly critical factor for Reliance, and the same is ensured during the procurement process through regular meetings / communication. Suppliers and Reliance work as Partners to achieve the laid down objectives of the Company.

Nurturing Digital Ecosystems

JioGenNext

JioGenNext began with the leadership's vision of encouraging startups. They saw early on that startups would increasingly become a major powerhouse of talent, technology, and creativity for the country. JioGenNext has been essential in catalysing the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem and enabling various businesses to attain scale by launching them in the Reliance ecosystem since its debut in 2014. Startup Reseau recognised it at the NEXTT Summit 2021 as one of the top five corporate innovation and corporate venture capital programmes in India. It has conducted more than 16 cohorts supporting 170 startups who have collectively raised over `2,600 crore in early-stage venture capital.

In FY 2021-22, JioGenNext announced its Market Access Programme (MAP ‘21) with 11 high- potential businesses. MAP focuses on two areas of advice and opportunity for startups:

1. Reliance / Jio access: To connect founders in the Reliance / Jio ecosystem. Create and accelerate interactions between startups and internal stakeholders to identify partnerships and possibilities that can help them expand quickly. It’s a one of a kind ‘customer-as- mentor’ approach.
2. Business Mentorship: To assist businesses on product innovation, go-to-market strategy, recruiting, marketing, funding, and product-market fit, all of which are related to a startup's overall business success. The programme is tailored to each startup's specific needs and goals.

MAP currently operates on an annual cohort model, with entrepreneurs being accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year. JioGenNext intends to use MAP to increase its value addition to entrepreneurs and develop win-win collaborations in the startup ecosystem.

Customer Satisfaction

For Reliance, customers are the key to a sustainable future. Winning their trust drives the Company to surpass consumer expectations continuously. Across all its businesses, Reliance aims to offer customers a diverse selection of options, an exceptional value proposition, high standards of quality, and an unrivalled experience. The Company continued to provide its millions of customers with high- quality service across all business verticals throughout the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Reliance Jewels conducts ‘Mystery Audits’ to measure customer satisfaction. This includes audits on critical parameters that contribute to the overall customer experience, such as cover employee appearance, ease of store navigation from the customer perspective, ability of employees to recommend and pitch products and handle objections. In addition to obtaining feedback from converted customers, Reliance also collects non-converted customer feedback through an online feedback form, which helps the Company understand customer preference and satisfaction levels.

eliminates the need for repair engineers to travel to customer locations. Troubleshooting is done over the phone with videos and images, providing customers quick resolution to technical issues. RTS also helped pull off faster replacements, which reduced complaints by 20%. The Company empowered customers with various self-service initiatives including deploying cancellation feature on the app. It reduced complaints related to cancellations and refunds by 15%. As a result of supply bottlenecks during the year, imported spares were not readily available, adversely impacting repair service levels. Reliance Retail improved the repair Service Level Agreements (SLA) to 82% closure within three days and 94% closure within seven days by working closely with brands to prioritise ResQ customer repairs, increasing spares inventory levels and enabling quick supply to service centres.

Elevating Customer Experience at Reliance Fashion and Lifestyle

To enhance customer experience at Reliance Fashion & Lifestyle offline outlets, the Company launched various targeted initiatives. It launched Project CASH at Reliance Trends stores. The project focused on rigorous store team capability building and assessment for a consistent brand experience, improved product options, coordinated visibility to aid customer decision-making and upgraded the cashiering process to smoothen the point-of-sale experience. The aim was to ensure that each client was well-served. The results were reflected in an improved Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 21% absolute for Trends Small-town and 12% absolute for Trends, with a 63% increase in NPS feedback response rate.

Within the online store, an improvement in NPS of 7% was achieved through the launch of several customer focused initiatives and process improvements, such as aggressive promised delivery dates and adherence to the same, supply chain speed improvements across order journey by an average of one day, improved refund speed with 99% returns getting repaid at the door. To further enhance customer service on the platform, the Company has focused on reducing queue waiting time and increasing first-time solution percentage, improving NPS of customer interactions.

Netmeds: Standing by customers through COVID-19

Netmeds is an online pharmacy digital commerce platform managed and operated by Reliance Retail. Netmeds spread COVID-19 awareness through its app and through awareness camps at many Netmeds stores. Netmeds also created a new COVID-19 essentials category, with a wide assortment of products, in the app for customers to place orders easily. The Fulfillment Centre team went beyond its call of duty to deliver essential products to customers in times of crisis and fear when courier partners were not available to make the deliveries. Customers whole- heartedly appreciated this act of humanity and kindness, as evident through their testimonials. Netmeds has ensured exceptional customer delight led by its B2B sales force team that personally delivered medicines to pharmacies on multiple occasions, enabling timely availability to customers. Netmeds also supported its group companies by on-time delivery of Remdesivir, PPE kits and other COVID related medicines.

Data Privacy and Security

Reliance places tremendous importance on security and privacy in each of its businesses. Within Jio's privacy and security programme, the focus is on three essential aspects: embedding security in design, effective governance, and allowing organisation-wide security awareness. A highly efficient governance architecture with optimised processes ensures asset protection, customer data privacy, and fewer security breaches.