Reliance Industries wins Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

MUMBAI: Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has won the Golden Peacock Award 2017 for the success of its Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives and in particular for the transformative work done by Reliance Foundation (RF), the CSR arm of the Company.

Under the able leadership of its Founder and Chairman, Smt. Nita M. Ambani, RF has touched the lives of over 15 Mn people across India covering more than 13,500 villages and 74 urban locations. RIL was recognized by the Awards Jury under the Chairmanship of Justice (Dr.) Arijit Pasayat, former Judge, Supreme Court of India.

Company has achieved significant milestones and measurable progress in the last 40 years. The Company has always believed in creating societal value through its philanthropic activities for more than two decades, with its approach towards social development evolving as per contemporary needs over the years.

RF is committed to the spirit of maximising societal value for all, bringing it in the sync with vision, mission and values of its parent organization, Reliance Industries Limited. The vision of RF is to build an inclusive India by pioneering a holistic model to address our nation’s multi-faceted development challenges, and contribute to its collective aspirations.

RIL is committed towards improving the lives of India’s most marginalized and vulnerable communities. All CSR initiatives of RIL are guided by three core commitments of Scale, Impact and Sustainability. CSR initiatives focus on various social challenges and are aimed at providing a better quality of life and livelihoods for a stronger and inclusive India. To realize its commitment and philosophy, Reliance has adopted three modes of engagement for on-ground implementation of identified CSR initiatives to ensure that benefits reach out to the population in need.

• Direct Engagement: Most initiatives to be conceptualized and executed directly through a team of professionals.
• Partnerships: In specific cases, RIL partners with other organizations who have the technical expertise and experience to undertake various programmes in the identified core focus areas of operation, to improve our outcomes.
• Leveraging Technology: RIL to lay significant emphasis on leveraging technology for developmental solutions.

One of the key social projects of RIL, recognized by the Golden Peacock jury, aims at impacting farmer livelihoods through water and food security interventions. Under its rural transformation initiative, Reliance has been implementing a programme called “Bharat-India Jodo (BIJ)” that works closely with marginal and small farmers for enhancing their lives and livelihoods, and making agriculture a first choice profession.

The fundamental strength of the programme is that it empowers rural communities, and engages them extensively in co-creating the strategies for rural development. The programme is designed such that the element of sustainability is part of the plan.

With a 360 degree approach, the programme has multi-faceted interventions that are interlinked with one another to make agriculture a first-choice profession. While the initial engagement is aimed at land development and water security measures, the other key interventions under the programme promotes food and nutrition security and creating market linkages for better price realization.

These efforts have been recognised by the eminent jury of the Golden Peacock Awards 2017, conferring this distinction on RIL for its efforts towards positive societal change and transformation.

The Golden Peacock Awards, established now for over 25 years, have, over time become a hallmark of excellence, both locally and globally. No award has achieved such respectability and admiration from the industry as the ‘Golden Peacock Awards’, which today receives around 1000 applications for various Awards each year. This is largely due to its transparent and 3-Tier evaluation process, based on internationally recognized criteria. The Award applications are assessed at three levels by Independent Assessors and finally by a Grand Jury.

Hon’ble Justice M. N. Venkatachaliah, Chairman, Institute Of Directors and former Chief Justice, Supreme Court of India is the Chairman of the Golden Peacock Awards. Justice (Dr.) Arijit Pasayat, former Judge, Supreme Court of India and former Chairman, Competition Appellate Tribunal & Authority for Advance Ruling (Customs, Central Excise & Service Tax) is the Co-Chairman of the Golden Peacock Awards. The Global Awards are finalized by a Jury headed by The Rt. Hon. Sir Richard Needham (The Earl of Kilmorey PC), Non-Executive Director, NEC Europe Ltd. & Chairman-Advisory Group, STERN UK.