well-resourced future

A pro-growth, pro-business environment in India

For India, FY 2020 was characterized by several developments, including the re-election of the ruling party with an even larger mandate; the systemic identification, restructuring and tidying up of prevailing issues in the financial services sector; and the announcement of a slew of policy measures by the government. While the clean-up applied temporary brakes on growth owing to a credit crunch, the fiscal and monetary policy announcements acted as a counterbalance, along with focus on keeping inflation under permissible limits.

At the juncture that we are in, India faces its own unique opportunities and the priorities that come with it. As we stand today, we have the reasons to believe that we are better positioned than any other nation with a visionary government, young working population, a conducive business environment and rising public expenditure.

The government’s announcements made through the year and as part of the Union Budget 2020-21 are directed at setting the stage for India’s future growth. Among these, the National Infrastructure Pipeline with a projected total investment of INR 102 lakh crore (USD 1.44 trillion) during the period FY 2020-2025 deserves a special mention. It reinforces the government’s commitment to build an India of the future with better connectivity and better resilience. It also has a direct and positive impact on heavy industries such as ours, with expected short to medium term buoyancy in demand. Other measures, such as a corporate tax cut, 100% FDI in coal mining, and merger of public sector banks are also noteworthy, which are directed at boosting the business climate in the country.

Metals and mining – Propelling India’s Growth

With large-scale infrastructure spend on the horizon, the metals and mining sector is expected to receive a boost in demand both over the short as well as longer term. This growth will be further facilitated by the National Mineral Policy 2019, launched to ensure transparency, better regulation and enforcement, and to ensure a balance between social and economic growth. The Policy touches upon contemporary issues and guides on the adoption of scientific mining, technology and innovation, and environmental and social priorities As Vedanta, we are well aligned to these guidelines and continue to set new benchmarks in good mining practices.

Vedanta - Ready to service the nation’s needs

As India grows, so will its needs and aspirations. At Vedanta, we are focussed on providing vital commodities that facilitate the everyday lives of Indians and service their needs. Vedanta as India’s only diversified natural resources group is presented with a unique opportunity to provide the vital commodities the country needs for infrastructure development, asset creation, mobility, housing, consumer goods and general consumption. Together with everyone, we can harness the potential of natural resources in the most sustainable way to fuel the nation's progress. It is with this objective that we have reinforced our positioning as ‘Vedanta, Desh ki Zarooraton ke liye.’

Contributing to nation-building

At Vedanta, our business performance contributes directly to the nation’s economy. With over 40% of revenue being contributed to the national exchequer, we continue to deliver on our commitments, in the most transparent and ethical manner. We also employ closer to 80,000 on-roll and contractual personnel, thus creating a multiplier effect on the economy. According to a recent report by Institute for Competitiveness, a subsidiary of IFC (part of the World Bank Group), Vedanta’s operations contribute around ~1% to India’s GDP.

As we grow further, we continue to play a pivotal role in India’s social development stage, and maintain a strong social engagement through our corporate responsibility initiatives. In FY 2019-20, we spent ~US$41 million, to touch the lives of over 3.26 million people. Our core impact areas are education, health, sustainable livelihoods, women empowerment, sports and culture, environment and community development. Each of our Group companies have their own CSR agenda and they undertake associated interventions in one or more of the above impact areas. For example, Balco actively supports the fight against cancer through its 170-bed Medical Centre in Chhattisgarh, under the aegis of Vedanta Medical Research Foundation.

Our flagship CSR programme, Nand Ghar, is aimed at building modern community resource centres through the length and breadth of the nation. Conceived in association with the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD), the Nand Ghar initiative targets the empowerment of 8.5 crore children and 2 crore women across 13.7 lakh Anganwadis in India. 2019 was a milestone year for this initiative, as we witnessed the inauguration of our 1000th Nand Ghar. By FY 2020-21, we are planning to quadruple the number of these centres, with an unwavering commitment to giving back to the society

A firm focus on environmental sustainability

Our sustainability approach is strongly driven by the need to address the expectations of our stakeholders while delivering strong business performance. As a company we are attuned to global expectations and endeavour to contribute to the fulfilment of the UN SDGs.

Our sustainable development agenda straddles four major pillars of Responsible Stewardship, Building Strong Relationships, Adding and Sharing Value, and Strategic Communications. These are developed in line with our core values, internal and external sustainability imperatives and global relevant frameworks.

Our environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities are well-aligned to our enterprise goals and towards this end, we are working with a target-based approach to foster an inclusive and sustainable future for all. We ensure the safety of our workforce with its associated programs on Visible Felt Leadership, deeper engagement on safety with our Business Partners, and managing critical safety tasks.

We are also managing our environmental impact through associated programs on GHG emissions intensity reduction, tailings dam management, and recycling of our high-volume-low-effect wastes such as fly ash. We have defined a social performance framework for the organization to secure our social license to operate assessing the maturity of our business in the context, and driving community development activities across multiple spheres such as child education, women’s empowerment, medical infrastructure development, and sports, among others.

Employee safety, health and wellbeing

The safety, health and wellbeing of our employees continue to be a highly critical focus area for us. However, I regret to inform that even with a razor-sharp focus on occupational health and safety, we witnessed seven fatalities this year. One life lost is too many for us, and we have redoubled our efforts to effectively enforce a safety culture and avoid any untoward incident, going forward.

Together we win

Ever since we began our journey, our culture has always been people-centric, because we believe we are only as resourceful, resilient and future ready as our people. We are committed to provide our people a safer, sustainable, inspiring and inclusive culture.

Our culture enshrines our core values and nurtures innovation, creativity and diversity. We align our business goals with individual goals and enable our employees to grow on the personal as well as the professional front. Being an equal opportunity employer, and a meritocracy – all our decisions regarding employees are based on their contribution, attitude and potential.

Changes in leadership

With a heavy heart, I would like to announce that Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan (Venkat) stepped down as the CEO and Director of the Company with effect from 5th April 2020, for personal reasons and will be re-joining his family in South Africa. Over the last 2 years, I have enjoyed working with Venkat to drive our vision for the company and the country at large.

I admire Venkat for his passion, dedication, ability to connect with people and his grasp of business. Venkat is a committed leader and will be remembered for his passion for sustainability, asset integrity, development and positioning Vedanta in global markets. We would like to acknowledge and express our deep appreciation and gratitude to Venkat for his immense contribution to the Company. This year, we also had to bid adieu to Ajay Kumar Dixit, our Cairn Oil & Gas business CEO and Deshnee Naidoo, our Zinc International business CEO. Ajay superannuated from the Company at the end of his five-year term this May, while Deshnee had to leave us for personal reasons. Both led respective businesses with great zeal and passion.

We wish them the best for all their upcoming endeavours. It is my pleasure to welcome Sunil Duggal- as our interim CEO, a mature and proven leader who has held key leadership positions across the Group in the last 10 years. Sunil is an industry veteran and an active member of several industry and advocacy forums. He is passionate about safety, environment and ESG. We look forward to Sunil taking the Company to greater heights. I also want to place on record my thanks to the 80,000+ people who make up the Vedanta family and who, during this year, have innovated, broken records, and driven up our output with ever-increasing efficiency.

Way forward

I sincerely believe that the post-Covid world will bring huge opportunities for India to secure a better place in the emerging global economic order. I also believe the ultimate ‘Make in India’ moment for our country is soon to arrive. With ample natural, human and technological resources and strong reform-focused democratic governance, India holds out hope in the post-Covid era as global businesses and investors look at reducing dependency on China. This will mean more jobs, more investments, rapid development and a great boost to our ‘Make in India’ initiative.

As I look back at Vedanta’s journey so far, I can say with reasonable confidence that we have steadily grown and evolved to be an organisation creating disproportionate value for citizens of India. Even amidst a short-term environment of uncertainty, I have well-founded belief in our fundamentals, our strategy and our people, which taken together, is a powerful force to reckon with. My outlook remains positive for the country and for the company and we are equipped to fulfil every commitment we have towards our stakeholders.

On behalf of the Board and the entire leadership team, I solicit your continued cooperation for all our present and future endeavours.