India is a land of abundant resources. Resources that help our economy grow, and create sustainable livelihoods for millions of people. At Vedanta, we continue to foster long life, structurally low cost and diverse assets with excellent potential, which drive our growth ambitions.

Our investments in smarter processes, industry-leading efficiencies, empowerment of our people, and strong corporate

governance help us address the nation’s growing needs for metals and minerals.

Our strategic decisions are supported by robust cashflows, disciplined capital allocation and emphasis on sustainability in everything we do. With a resilient and responsible business model, we are ideally positioned to partner India’s journey towards greater self-reliance.

 

Vedanta Limited Sustainability Report (SR) 2019-20

Information coverage: Disclosures on triple bottom line performance

Standards/guidelines used: Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards

Vedanta Limited Tax Transparency Report (TTR) 2019-20

Information coverage: Voluntary disclosure of profits made and taxes paid (only Indian Company to publish a TTR)

Standards/guidelines used: Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS)

Vedanta Limited Integrated Report (IR) and Annual Accounts 2019-20

Information coverage: Holistic disclosure of performance and strategy

Standards/guidelines used: International; Integrated Reporting <IR> Framework,

Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS), Indian Secretarial Standards

Vedanta Limited TCFD Report 2020

Information coverage: Climate-related financial disclosures

Standards/guidelines used: Approach to climate action, climate strategy and climate risk management

 

Integrated Report
		see pages 02-163
03		Integrated thinking at Vedanta
04		Highlights FY2021
INTRODUCTION
08		Vedanta at a Glance
10		Asset Overview
12		Investment case
16		Chairman’s statement
20		CEO’s statement
24		Key performance indicators
28		Case studies
VALUE CREATION AND STRATEGY
38		Value creation model
40		Our strategic framework
46		Opportunity landscape
50		Risk Management
OUR BOARD AND MANAGEMENT
62		Board of Directors
66		Management Committee
68		Executive Committee
SUSTAINABILITY AND ESG
76		Sustainability, Environmental, Social and People
98		Governance
100		Business Responsibility Report Mapping
108		Awards
MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
114		Market Review
118		Segment Review
124		Finance Review
128		Operational Review

Statutory Reports
		see pages 164-265
164		Directors’ report
214		Report on Corporate Governance
Marching ahead and contributing to aatmanirbhar bharat
		see pages 28
Taking digital transformation to the next level
		see pages 32

Financial Statements
		see pages 266-499
266		Standalone financials
372		Consolidated financials
Read more online
at vedantalimited.com
Powering the wheels of the automotive industry
		see pages 30
Cairn pushes the digital envelope farther
see pages 34

 

Inspired by our values, we remain committed to disclosing relevant information pertaining to our material issues, with highest standards of transparency and integrity. It is towards this end that we continue to communicate our annual performance and future strategy through Integrated Reporting <IR>. This is our fourth such report, prepared in accordance with the International Integrated Reporting <IR> Framework, outlined by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC).

Our <IR> journey commenced in FY2018 and we were one of the very first natural resources companies in India to publish an integrated report. These reports are prepared to assist our stakeholders, primarily the providers of financial capital, to make an informed assessment of our ability to create value over the short, medium and long term. They strive to demonstrate our confidence, capacity to grow and our ability to deliver on set strategies that can drive significant financial and non-financial value for everyone.

SCOPE AND BOUNDARY

This report covers the reporting period from 1 Apr 2020 to 31 Mar 2021 and provides 360^o information on Vedanta Limited (Vedanta, VEDL), a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources limited.

It provides an overview of operations across our business units, namely, zinc-lead-silver, oil & gas, aluminium, power, iron ore, steel

and copper. Our assets are spread across India, South Africa and Namibia, and across the value chain comprising exploration, asset development, extraction, processing and value accretion activities.

This report aims to provide a concise explanation of VEDL’s performance, strategy, operating model, business outputs and outcomes using a multi- capital approach. It includes measures of engagement with identified material stakeholder groups and outlines the organisation’s governance framework, together with our risk-mitigation strategy.

APPROACH TO MATERIALITY

This report contains information that we believe is of interest to our stakeholders and presents a discussion around matters that can impact our ability to create value over the short, medium and long term.

APPROACH TO STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

Our stakeholders are those individuals or organisations who have an interest in, and/or whose actions impact our ability to execute our strategy. We periodically engage with different stakeholder groups and actively respond to their concerns and issues.

ANNUAL ACCOUNTS

This report should be read in conjunction with the annual accounts (page 266 to 499) to gain a complete picture of VEDL’s financial performance. The consolidated and standalone financial statements in our report have been prepared in accordance with the Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) notified under the Companies (Indian Accounting Standards) Rules, 2015 (as amended from time to time) and have been independently audited by S.R. Batliboi & Co. LLP. The Independent Auditors’ Report for both consolidated and standalone financials can be found on page 266 and 373 respectively.

BOARD AND MANAGEMENT ASSURANCE

The Board of Directors and the Company’s management acknowledge their responsibility to ensure the integrity of information covered in this report. They believe, to the best of their knowledge, that this report addresses all material issues and presents the integrated performance of VEDL and its impact in a fair and accurate manner. The report has therefore been authorised for release on 13 May 2021.

 

Exploration

We have consistently added more to our Reserves and Resources (‘R&R’) through brownfield and greenfield activities. This helps us to extend the lives of our existing mines and oilfields.

Asset Development

We have a strong track record of executing projects on time and within budget. We take special care to develop the resource base to optimise production and increase the life of the resource. We also strategically develop processing facilities.

Extraction

Our operations are focused on exploring and producing metals, extracting oil & gas and generating power. We extract zinc-lead- silver, iron ore, steel, copper and aluminium. We have three operating blocks in India producing oil & gas.

 

Processing

We produce refined metals by processing and smelting extracted minerals at our zinc, lead, silver, copper, and aluminium smelters, and other processing facilities in India and Africa. For this purpose, we generate captive power as a best practice measure and sell any surplus power.

Value Addition

We meet market requirements by converting the primary metals produced into value added products such as sheets, rods, bars, rolled products, etc. at our zinc, aluminium and copper businesses.

    

 

Large-scale, diversified asset portfolio, with an attractive cost position in many core businesses, positions us to deliver strong margins and free cash flows through the commodity cycle

An attractive commodity mix, with strong fundamentals and promising demand growth; key focus on base metals and oil

While commodity markets suffered during the first half of 2020 due to COVID-19, with the base metals sector experiencing reduced demand from manufacturing, and oil price suffering from severe demand weakness owing to travel restrictions and prolonged factory shutdowns, the second half of the year saw recovery, particularly in Vedanta’s core commodities (zinc, aluminium and oil & gas). In 2021, various efforts to stimulate economic growth by governments, central banks and international institutions, together with faster vaccine rollout are likely to strengthen the recovery in these commodity markets.

 

DEAR STAKEHOLDERS,

The year 2020 was a very unusual year for all of us. A year that was challenging on multiple fronts, but what stood out was the extraordinary resilience and adaptability of individuals and enterprises. There was a tectonic shift in the way we live or conduct our businesses, and Vedanta was no different. As a large natural resources company, we have had our fair share of challenges. However, we were quick to adapt to the emerging realties, backed by the relentless support of our dynamic workforce.

We extended our support to the nation’s fight against COVID-19 during its first wave through contributions to the PM CARES Fund and undertaking initiatives that positively impacted the lives of over 15 lakh people. We have now pledged ₹150 crore to help the country in its fight against the second wave of COVID-19 along with setting up 1,000 specialty beds in 10 locations across India. Sterlite Copper, which has a capacity to produce 1,000 tonnes of oxygen at Tuticorin, is catering to the needs of COVID-19 patients in the region.

A YEAR OF CONTINUED EXCELLENCE AND LEARNING

Vedanta Limited is one of the world’s largest suppliers of natural resources, with primary operations in zinc-lead-silver, iron ore, steel, copper, aluminium, power, oil & gas. Our portfolio of world-class, low- cost, scalable assets consistently generate strong profitability and deliver robust cash flows. We are actively deleveraging our balance sheet and are raising the bar in operational excellence across our wide canvas of operations.

During FY2021, Vedanta continued to live up to its promises to its stakeholders and operated a resilient and responsible business that

 

₹150 crore

Pledged by Vedanta to support India during the second wave of COVID-19

contributed to a self-reliant India. Even as temporary disruptions materialised, we were able to bounce back strongly with industry-leading EBITDA margins and exceptional quarters for key businesses.

We continued to deliver on all strategic levers, building on our strengths and commitment to operational excellence. We remained cash flow positive; and maintained liquidity at comfortable levels.

It also gives me great pleasure to inform you that we performed exceedingly well on key environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects during the year. This is validated by our ranking in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, which improved nine places to 12^th globally in our industry. It’s a true reflection of our belief that business and sustainability are synergistic in nature.

While we have reasons to celebrate, we mourn the passing of eight of our colleagues. We are grieved by their irreplaceable loss and are supporting the bereaved families. At Vedanta, we accord paramount importance to occupational safety and employee well-being and continue to nurture a safety culture that results in zero harm. However, there is always room for improvement, and collective action and behavioural change alone can help bring transformational outcomes. Aligned to this, we are conducting a Group-wide review of permit to work and isolation procedure and are instating a safety alert dashboard to improve implementation of fatality learnings. Cross business safety audits and piloting of critical risk management are other supplementary initiatives supporting this.

OPERATING IN A THRIVING ECONOMY

After an outlier year, India is now back on the growth trajectory, and is poised to grow by 11.5% in FY2022, according to the International Monetary Fund. The rebound is clearly evidenced by the uptick in consumption, manufacturing activity and bank credit. India is experiencing a V-shaped recovery. Global agencies such as the World Bank have acknowledged the fact that this recovery is phenomenal, given how the country has now opened up, and is organising large-scale vaccination drives on priority.

 

The government is also playing a key role in facilitating the economy’s return to the growth path. This is clearly reflected in the Union Budget 2021-22, which lays extended focus on economic enablers such as infrastructure and socially important sectors such as health.Among others, the proposals to create a Development Financial Institution (DFI), monetise assets, set up new economic corridors and increase the ambit of the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) are promising. These measures, in conjunction with a conducive policy environment, are expected to increase the demand for basic materials in which we specialise. The relevance of metals and mining are more pronounced today than ever, and at Vedanta, we are rightly positioned to cater to the growing needs. The clarion call for ‘Aatmanirbharta’ is very well founded, and we are perfectly aligned to the government’s vision of a self-reliant nation. In line with this, we have augmented our positioning to ‘Desh Ki Zarooraton Ke Liye, Aatmanirbhar Bharat Ke Liye.’

GROWING IN A VITAL INDUSTRY

There is a definite focus on India’s natural resources sector as a key enabler in supporting the nation’s development. Apart from being a contributor to GDP, it underpins the supply of raw materials to the nation’s burgeoning manufacturing sector. Development of this sector thus holds the key to the nation’s ambition of becoming fully self-reliant.

In recognition of this, India is turning a new leaf with the introduction of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment (MMRDA) Bill, 2021. A welcome move, its passage will significantly boost India’s metals and mining industry, by inviting private participation in the exploration of key resources such as coal and gold. It is set to redefine the norms of exploration of mineral blocks and adequately utilise India’s unused mineral reserves. Currently, natural resources contribute 1.75% to India’s GDP, whereas in countries with similar reserves, the contribution is 7-7.5%. The MMRDA Bill is a gamechanger in this context and is expected to significantly improve the share of the sector in the national economy. It will contribute to the creation of over five million jobs and will considerably reduce India’s import dependence for basic materials.

BEING THE DEVELOPER OF CHOICE

Over the years, Vedanta has built one of the most recognised and impactful CSR programmes in India. As a natural resources player, we are inextricably linked to the communities near our operations, and have become an inalienable part of their livelihood.

From here stems our deep sense of responsibility and extended obligation beyond what is mandatory.

During FY2021, we spent over ₹331 crore on social development activities, spread across our core impact areas of education, health, sustainable livelihoods, women empowerment, sports and culture, environment and community development. Each Group company played its part by executing the respective CSR agenda, in line with the Group guidelines.

This year, supporting communities during the COVID-19 crisis also assumed precedence, with the distribution of nearly 25 lakh meal and ration kits, and over 7 lakh health and hygiene kits.

 

As we stand today, our flagship CSR initiative for women and children has touched a new milestone, with the setting up of 2,300+ Nand Ghars in 11 states. It continues to pave the way for the model Anganwadi movement across the country and till date, we have positively touched the lives of ~52,000 women and ~65,000 children through the initiative.

BEING NATURALLY RESPONSIBLE

As the largest natural resources company of India, we are well aware of the responsibility that rests on our shoulders. It’s in this context that we have a target-oriented environmental programme. We believe that good ecology is good business and strive our best to give back more than we take. Consequently, over the past four years, we have achieved water savings of ~9.23 million m³ and have implemented an active plastic protocol in three of our business units. We have also seen 100%+ fly ash utilisation.

With regards to GHG emissions, we have a vision to substantially de-carbonise our operations by 2050, and towards this extent, we have built a Group-wide carbon forum with CEO-level engagement.

I’m also proud of the fact that we are among the 24 Indian companies who, in late 2020, signed the declaration towards carbon neutrality. Today, we have achieved ~13.6 million tCO₂e in avoided emissions compared to our 2012 baseline.

BEING THE EMPLOYER OF CHOICE

Vedanta is home to thousands of skilled professionals, who seek to develop their careers aligned to our culture and facilitated by an employee-friendly, diverse, and meritocratic environment. Their efforts have been instrumental in taking Vedanta to its current stature, and their contribution to ensuring business continuity has been phenomenal at the height of the pandemic.

The safety, well-being and happiness of our employees is of utmost importance to us, and we are taking every measure to ensure the same. Towards this, we rolled out health programmes for our employees and business partners during the year. We also focused on telemedicine, promotion of mental health and health monitoring so that our people remained safe and secure during these trying times.

We constantly engage with best-in-class service and technology providers to ensure the highest level of safety for our employees and have managed to achieve a zero-fatality year at our largest business - Hindustan Zinc.

AHEAD WITH INDIA

As I look forward, I see an opportunity of a lifetime ahead of us. Our economy has regained its growth momentum and we are operating in an industry that complements this growth curve. With India’s young energy, consistent governance, strong consumption, and a thriving private sector, I’m positive that the best for the nation is yet to come. At Vedanta, we are cognisant of the immense growth potential and will invest in opportunities that create value for all stakeholders. As we power ahead, we stand in solidarity with India, its ambition of being Aatmanirbhar and creating a 5 trillion-dollar economy.

Best regards,

Anil Agarwal

 

DEAR STAKEHOLDERS,

I am happy to report that our intrinsic spirit to do more and serve more helped us navigate the crisis with confidence in FY2021, which truly tested our mettle. In a year abound with changes and challenges, our performance was exemplary by any measure. Further, the year also saw us strategically augment our business model with larger integration and a digital-first approach. The entire Vedanta family deserves a huge round of applause for this achievement.

RESILIENCE MEETS PRUDENCE

I can say with reasonable confidence that we delivered on all major strategic priority areas, with positive outcomes across key performance indicators. We maintained our leadership in most of our businesses and improved on our sustainability metrics. We also supported our people, partners and communities during the testing times of the pandemic and continue to do so. Safety and health continue to be our 24X7 priority. It is a commitment that strengthens our culture, guides our decisions and drives our long-term success.

₹32,614 crore

Cash and cash equivalents

~19%

ROCE

Sunil Duggal,

Chief Executive Officer

 

Our liquidity position remains robust with cash and cash equivalents of ₹32,614 crore, with a conservative debt exposure. We have been able to maintain a low Net Debt/EBITDA of 0.9x. Our focus on shareholder value creation remains unwavering, evidenced by a strong ROCE of ~19%.

From a resources standpoint, Vedanta continues to foster long life, structurally low cost and diverse assets with excellent potential, which aligns with our growth ambitions. Together with our strengths in technology, people, and governance, we are ready to cater to the nation’s growing needs for metals and minerals.

A PARAMOUNT FOCUS ON SAFETY

In FY2021, we sharpened our focus on fostering a safe and healthy working environment for our people and partners. However, it is with deep regret that I report the demise of eight of our colleagues. We are doing everything we can to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future. At Vedanta, we accord paramount importance to occupational safety and employee well-being and continue to nurture a safety culture that results in zero harm.

However, there is always room for improvement, and collective action and behavioural change alone can usher in transformational outcomes. Aligned to this, we are conducting a Group-wide review of permit to work and isolation procedure and are instating a safety alert dashboard to improve implementation of fatality learnings. Cross business safety audits and piloting of critical risk management are other supplementary initiatives supporting this.

SUSTAINABILITY AS AN IMPERATIVE

I’m proud to say that today more than ever, we are striving to contribute better to the world. Our focus on decarbonisation and the commitments we have made in lieu of the same are proactive steps that we are taking in doing our part. Similarly, compared to a baseline from a decade ago, we are much better placed in terms of water savings and emissions. Going forward, we will continue to work on our announced targets and ensure that our operations maintain a greener footprint.

 

OPERATIONAL REVIEW

FY2021 saw us achieve some of our best quarters in zinc and steel while we sustained low-cost production of aluminium. We also ramped up our natural gas production. Here’s a brief update on each of our businesses:

Aluminium

In FY2021, we achieved record aluminium production of 1,969 kt at our aluminium smelters, and record alumina production from our Lanjigarh facility. We were also able to sustain our low-cost advantage by engaging structural measures to attain US$1,347 per tonne cost of production in FY2021. We have also achieved an EBITDA margin of 27%. While we have optimised our coal and bauxite source mix, we have also continued our journey towards improving our operational efficiencies and debottlenecking our assets for improved capacity utilisation. Similarly, Lanjigarh capacity expansion from 2 mtpa to 5 mtpa has been initiated.

Zinc

For Zinc India operations, we completed 1.2 MnT mined metal project activities and sustained production post-transition to a fully underground mining company. We will be actively adding to our R&R in sync with high production, going forward. We are also achieving strong momentum in silver production and aim to be among the top three producers of silver, globally. For Zinc International, our performance ramp-up continues, achieving highest ever production till date at Gamsberg, along with sustained cost reduction.

Oil & Gas

We continued delivering on growth projects such as the commissioning of the new gas facility, ramp up of polymer injection, and upgradation of the liquid handing capacity by 30%, major facility systems commissioned. We added 10 new blocks in OLAP II & III, bringing the total to 58 blocks. Early drilling opportunities are being evaluated in Rajasthan, Assam and Cambay regions. Till FY2021, to deliver on the capex project, 256 wells have been drilled and 149 wells hooked up. Our average gross production during the year stood at 162 kboepd; which was mainly impacted by COVID-19.

Iron ore

Following the upcyle in the metal sector, we were able to swiftly mobilise inventory, and realise value owing to firm market prices. The production in Karnataka has significantly improved at a y-o-y level.

Steel

For our ESL business, FY2021 proved to be the best till date, since acquisition. We achieved a hot metal production of 1,286 kt, with 19% margin. This was led by a significant contribution from our value-added products sales, whose mix in the portfolio has touched 72%.

FACOR

With respect to Ferro Alloys Corporation Limited (FACOR), we were able to more than double the margins since acquisition, and considerably improved our total market share. Our current ore production stands at 147 kt.

BUILDING A DIGITAL-FIRST ENTERPRISE

At Vedanta, we have laid a significant focus on leveraging technology and adopting Industry 4.0 practices. Under the ‘Pratham’ initiative, we have introduced several measures, such as smart manufacturing and advance process control in order to improve volumes and optimise asset utilisation. Project Disha, which leverages the wealth of data that the organisation has for decision-making, has started showing its results, owing to advanced analytics capabilities.

 

At a process level, to achieve Group-level salience and unification, we harmonised our people and HSE functions, which will lead to measurably better outcomes. The digitalisation drive has also led to enhanced automation and control in our supply chain and logistics. This will lead to better cost rationalisations and higher transparency across all aspects of operations.

We have realised that the change needed for digital adoption is more human-led as much as systems-led. It is with this intention that we have introduced Vedanta Spark, which is a global start-up platform that builds the innovation culture and mindset change, strengthening Group-wide digital capabilities.

INNOVATING INTEGRATED APPROACHES

We have augmented our business model by integrating our procurement and marketing functions. This will result in better economies of scale, lower process redundancies, and take us closer to our customers. Today, Vedanta has a single window for the selling of key commodities, enabled by digital platforms. It will also increase cross-selling opportunities and add on to market growth and new product development.

WINNING THE FUTURE

Our focus remains on generating robust cash flows, capital discipline, proactive liability management and maintaining a strong balance sheet. Also, we will continue to review all our strategic decisions, based on the evolving industry realities.

Capitalising on a favourable macro-economic environment, we are committed to helping build a more self-reliant India, and relentlessly contributing to its progress. I thank our esteemed Board, employees, investors, communities and all other stakeholders who have put their precious faith in our vision and capabilities and seek their continued support.

Best regards,

Sunil Duggal

At a process level, to achieve Group-level salience and unification, we harmonised our people and HSE functions, which will lead to measurably better outcomes.

 

Description: Revenue represents the value of goods sold and services provided to third parties during the year.

Commentary: In FY2021, consolidated revenue was at ₹86,863 crore compared to ₹83,545 crore in FY2020. This was primarily driven by higher commodity

prices, higher volumes at Zinc India, Copper, Iron Ore and Aluminium business, inclusion of FACOR in FY2021 and rupee depreciation, partially offset by lower power sales at TSPL, lower volume at Oil & Gas, Skorpion, and lower cost recovery at Oil & Gas business in FY2021.

 

Description: Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) is a factor of volume, prices and cost of production. This measure is calculated by adjusting operating profit for special items and adding depreciation and amortisation.

Commentary: EBITDA for FY2021 was at ₹27,341 crore, 30% higher y-o-y. This

was mainly driven by higher commodity prices, higher sales realisation from Iron ore and Steel business, increased volumes at Zinc India and Aluminium business, lower cost of production at Zinc, Aluminium and Oil & Gas business, and rupee depreciation, partially offset by lower brent realisation and lower cost recovery at Oil & Gas business.

 

Description: This represents net cash flow from operations after investing in growth projects. This measure ensures that profit generated by our assets is reflected by cash flow, in order to de-lever or maintain future growth or shareholder returns.

Commentary: We generated FCF of ₹13,821 crore in FY2021, driven by strong cash flow from operations and lower sustaining and project capital expenditure.

 

Description: This is calculated on the basis of operating profit before special items and net of tax outflow, as a ratio of average capital employed. The objective is to earn a post-tax return consistently above the weighted average cost of capital.

Commentary: Strong ROCE ~19% in FY2021 (FY2020: 11.2%), primarily due to strong operating and financial performance coupled with lower depreciation due to impairment in Oil & Gas business in FY2020.

 

Description: Calculated as EBITDA margin excluding EBITDA and turnover from custom smelting of Copper India and Zinc India businesses

Commentary: Adjusted EBITDA margin for FY2021 was 36% (FY2020: 29%).

 

Description: This ratio represents the level of leverage of the Company. It represents the strength of the balance sheet of Vedanta Limited. Net debt is calculated in the manner as defined in Note 16(c) of the consolidated financial statements.

Commentary: Net debt/EBITDA ratio as at 31 March 2021 was at 0.9x, compared to 1x as at 31 March 2020.

 

Description: The ratio is a representation of the ability of the Company to service its debt. It is computed as a ratio of EBITDA divided by gross finance costs (including capitalised interest) less investment revenue.

Commentary: The interest cover for the Company was at ~11.0x, higher y-o-y on account of higher EBITDA.

 

Description: The debtors’ turnover ratio is an accounting measure used to quantify the Company’s effectiveness in collecting its receivables. This is calculated as a ratio of revenue from operation to average trade receivables.

Commentary: The debtors turnover ratio was at 33.9x, higher y-o-y primarily on account of higher revenue from operations.

*Excluding power business

 

Description: The inventory turnover ratio is an efficiency ratio that shows how effectively inventory is managed. This is calculated as a ratio of cost of goods sold to average inventory.

Commentary: The inventory turnover ratio for the Company was at 5.6x in FY2021 as compared to 5.1x in FY2020.

 

Description: The current ratio is a liquidity ratio that measures the Company’s ability to pay short-term obligations or those due within one year. This is calculated as a ratio of current assests to current liabilities.

Commentary: The current ratio of the Company remained flat at ~1.0x.

 

Description: It is a financial ratio indicating the relative proportion of shareholders’ equity and debt used to finance a company’s assets. This is calculated as a ratio of total external borrowing to total equity (share capital + reserves + minority).

Commentary: The ratio has decreased to 0.7x in FY2021 primarily because of decrease in gross debt due to the repayment of debt at Vedanta Standalone partially offset by increase in borrowing at Zinc India business and BALCO and increase in equity.

 

Description: Operating profit margin is a profitability or performance ratio used to calculate the percentage of profit the Company produces from its operations. This is calculated as a ratio of operating profit (EBITDA less depreciation) to revenue from operations.

Commentary: The operating profit margin was higher in FY2021 as compared to FY2020, primarily due to higher EBITDA and lower depreciation in the current year.

 

Description: It is a measure of the profitability of the Company. This is calculated as a ratio of net profit (before exceptional items) to revenue from operations.

Commentary: The net profit margin was higher in FY2021 as compared to FY2020, primarily due to robust EBITDA and lower depreciation in the current year.

 

Description: It is a measure of the profitability of the Company. This is calculated as a ratio of net profit (before exceptional items) to average net worth (share capital + reserves + minority).

Commentary: The return on net worth has increased, mainly on account of increase in EBITDA during the year.

 

Description: This represents the amount invested in our organic growth programme during the year.

Commentary: Our stated strategy is of disciplined capital allocation on high- return, low-risk projects. Expansion capital expenditure during the year stood at ₹2,578 crore.

 

Description: This represents the net profit attributable to equity shareholders and is stated before exceptional items and dividend distribution tax (net of tax and minority interest impacts).

Commentary: In FY2020, EPS before exceptional items was at ₹32.80 per share. This mainly reflects the impact of lower depreciation charges and higher EBITDA.

 

Description: Dividend per share is the total of the final dividend recommended by the Board in relation to the year, and the interim dividend paid out during the year.

Commentary: The Board has recommended a total interim dividend of ₹9.50 per share this year compared with ₹3.90 per share in the previous year.

 

Description: Reserves and resources are based on specified guidelines for each commodity and region.

Commentary:

Zinc India: During the year, gross additions of 45 million tonnes were made to R&R, prior to depletion of 15 million tonnes. Overall mine life continues to be more than 25 years.

 

Zinc International: During the year, mineral R&R at Zinc International increased by 8% to 566.4 mt containing

30.3 mt of metal. Gross additions to R&R, after depletion, amounted to 41.3 mt of ore and 1.8 mt of metal. Despite depletion, reserve levels were successfully maintained at the same level as 2020, and amounted to 139.7 mt containing 8.3 mt of metal. The most significant contributor to the addition of

metal in resources was the declaration of a maiden resource at Gamsberg South (23.2 mt @ 7.1% Zn and 0.6% Pb). Overall mine life is more than 30 years.

Oil & Gas: During FY2021, the gross proven and probable R&R increased by 35 mmboe during the year.

 

Description: The lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) is the number of lost-time injuries per million man-hours worked. This includes our employees and contractors working in our operations and projects.

Commentary: This year the LTIFR was 0.55. Safety remains the key focus across businesses.

 

Description: The percentage of women in the total permanent employee workforce.

Commentary: We provide equal opportunities to men and women. During the year, the ratio of female employees was 11% of total employees.

 

Description: The total number of beneficiaries through our community development programmes across all our operations.

Commentary: We benefited around 42 million people this year through our community development projects comprising community health, nutrition, education, water and sanitation, sustainable livelihood, women empowerment and bio-investment. This year our large-scale COVID-19 outreach programme has further augmented the metric.

 

One such successful project is Continuous Galvanising Grade (CGG), a zinc-aluminium alloy that was co-developed with leading domestic steel manufacturers. The benefits of this value-added product comprise significantly low energy costs and better coating finish owing to the use of aluminium.

Electro Plating Grade (EPG) products

A successful HZL story

Another value-added product is Hindustan Zinc Die-cast Alloy (HZDA), which is now being used by the domestic auto components manufacturing industry. HZL offers two variants (HZDA-3 and HZDA-5) of the product to cater to the needs of alloy makers. Earlier, Die-cast alloys were imported, hence this make-in-India initiative will lead to foreign exchange savings for the country. Its wide availability is another big advantage for auto components manufacturing companies.

Yet another success story for HZL is Electro Plating Grade (EPG) products. The Company has set up a digital shop to quickly address the requirements of various customers seamlessly. Indian Micro Small and Medium Industries (MSMEs) can easily have access to the products

from the Company’s warehouses, with real-time prices benchmarked to the London Metal Exchange (LME).

The Company’s future plan is to develop zinc dust, which will cater to the requirements of the paints, pharma and fertiliser industries.

 

Partnering for self-reliance

Aligned with the mission for a self- reliant India, HZL envisages several opportunities in the near and long term and is already capitalising on many of them. HZL is now partnering with leading Indian corporates for Aatmanirbhar Bharat. The partnership with Tata Steel is a remarkable step in this direction. Tata Steel made an exception to their Two-Supplier policy by giving 100% of their annual requirement to HZL last year. HZL is providing vendor managed inventory services to Tata Steel’s plants to help them rationalise their costs.

Collaborating with academia

HZL is also partnering with IIT Bombay for Continuous Galvanized Rebar (CGR) benefits. IIT Bombay has published a paper that demonstrates the benefits of CGR vs epoxy-coated vs non-galvanized rebars, along with cost implications. The life of all coastal infrastructure can increase manifold at an almost equal cost compared to other options for EPC contractors.

Capitalising on strong tailwinds

Given the gradual migration from fossil fuel to renewables throughout the world, major investments in battery technology involving zinc are expected to come to India. This indicates that the horizon of opportunities for HZL is growing. The Company is fully equipped to take advantage of these tailwinds to grow its business and partner a self-reliant India.

 

INDIGENOUS CAPABILITIES FOR AN IMPORT-DEPENDENT INDUSTRY

India’s auto sector consumes about 4% aluminium, vis-à-vis 11% in the US and 14% in Europe, indicating a huge growth headroom. The country’s foundry market for automotive components is small (only 10% of the total foundry market) compared to that of the US. With increasing focus on higher performance with better safety and lower emission, this gap is going to shrink progressively.

We, at Vedanta, have tapped into the opportunity are developing indigenous capabilities to meet aluminium’s growing demand. Our Aluminium business was the first in India to supply Primary Foundry Alloys (PFA) to the import-dependent domestic auto sector for the manufacture of alloy wheels.

PFA’s domestic market was ~250 kt in FY2020, of which 65 kt was being imported as wheels from China and other duty-free nations and ~20 kt was being supplied from BALCO. In FY2020, 160 kt PFA was imported into India, which later reduced to 98 kt in FY2021 following the capacity ramp-up in BALCO’s foundry alloy line.

Our aluminium smelters across Odisha and Chhattisgarh have advanced technology-enabled cast houses. Best-in-class engineering technologies, intelligent automation, smart solutions, environmental safeguards and sustainability-focused operating procedures are integrated to create lasting value. Equipped with in-line metal treatment facilities consisting of degassing and metal filtration unit and continuous casting technology, this ensures that our customers get the best-in-quality PFA.

A HAWK-EYED FOCUS ON QUALITY

Our foundry alloy ingots exceed the most stringent quality requirements such as the standards set by the International Automotive Task Force (IATF). We have received IATF-16949 certification, one of the most widely used international standards trusted by leading global automakers. We are now India’s only TS-16949 and IATF-16949 accredited primary smelter. Our Centre of Quality Excellence, stringent quality assessment of raw materials and finished products have made us one of the most preferred aluminium suppliers to developed markets. Our Customer Technical Services (CTS) team has become more advanced and intuitive in ensuring complete customer fulfilment. With state-of-the-art infrastructure, engineering prowess, global technology partnerships and R&D capability to develop solutions, Vedanta is poised to bring fundamental change in India’s automotive and auto-ancillary markets to help build the future of mobility.

 

A NATURAL GROWTH PARTNER FOR INDIA’S AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR

Expanding our foundry alloy product line, we have recently launched the Aluminium Cylinder Head Alloy. This alloy was entirely being imported into India (25 kt in FY2021). The Cylinder Head Alloy leverages material design to help automakers increase efficiency of internal combustion engines for improved performance on emission control, in line with BS-VI and CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency/ Economy) norms.

The first Indian emission regulations were idle emission limits, which have become more stringent over time following the implementation of Bharat Standards, the latest of which is BS-VI, implemented on 1 April 2020. With tighter norms and compliance to control emission of sulphur oxide, nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide, automakers are

looking for fundamental solutions such as improving the efficiency of internal combustion engines. This is where Vedanta’s Aluminium Cylinder Head Alloy is helping automakers adhere to emission norms.

India’s auto component sector is among the fastest growing but lags in contribution to manufacturing turnover. The country’s auto component industry’s aspirations of having a significant share of the global trade, calls for a renewed focus on localisation on every business front, particularly with respect to sourcing raw materials. As India’s leading producer of a vast array of globally acclaimed metals and value-added products, Vedanta is a natural partner for the automotive and auto ancillary industry, across their entire value chain, from large players to MSMEs for the nation’s growth.

 

3D VISUALISATION TO REDUCE

RAMP JAM

With the extensive use of 3D visualisation module of OptiMine to track machines in the Rampura Agucha underground mine, we have achieved significant improvement (9-10%) in the reduction of ramp jams from November 2020 to March 2021. The control room has played a major role in tracking daily operations and critical processes to reduce ramp jams, increasing efficiency and improving average response time to clear the jams.

HAULING CYCLE TIME

REDUCTION IN RA UNDERGROUND MINE

The digitalisation of the underground mine through our WiFi network has been completed at Rampura Agucha mine and the control room setup is fully operational. Traffic awareness is being utilised now for the main decline section spanning 12 km. Traffic congestion and real-time equipment tracking are being utilised to drive operational efficiency. Mobilaris and Eurovac are our key partners in our ongoing digitalisation programme at RAUG.

Low Profile Dump Truck (LPDT) cycle time has reduced by 9-10% with improved visibility and real-time decision-making from control room to equipment.

 

SOFT SENSOR FOR ANALYSIS AND PREDICTION FOR REAL TIME P80

A soft sensor for P80 was built by modelling the grinding process in Rampura Stream, using the historical process parameter data from Pi. The model has 97% accuracy, which helps optimise the consumable usage of grinding media and process water addition. The model ensures a consistent P80 to the downstream floatation circuit, which will help the operations team to reduce concentrate grade fluctuation. As the model acts as a soft sensor for Particle Size Analyzer (PSI), the procurement and the operating costs of PSI are reduced. The model helps prevent over- or under- grinding by effective P80 tracking.

Traditional businesses are recognising the need for faster digitalisation to expedite integration across divisions and verticals, stepping up efficiency, and reaching out to more customers and stakeholders

 

EXPLORATION AND NEW FIELD DEVELOPMENT

Leading to the reduction in time-to- first oil by moving to cloud-based data management and high-performance computing such as seismic data and processing on cloud, log splicing tool, and so on.

DECLINE & RESERVOIR MANAGEMENT

To manage production-related challenges to the ageing fields, we are using traditional first principle- based approaches augmented by new-age data driven techniques in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) such as water flood optimisation in Aishwarya Upper Fatehgarh and polymer optimisation in Mangala fields, well reservoir management job planning and tracking, and so on.

SURFACE AND SUB-SURFACE OPERATIONS

We are focused on reducing unwanted production losses and driving digital-led efficient work processes through programmes such as digital oilfield. Disha – smart interactive reporting and dashboards, model predictive control-based artificial lift system optimisation, satellite fields IoT- based connectivity, production reporting, and others are part of this drive.

 

    

    

Improved systems and processes and faster adoption of digital strategy have enabled Cairn Oil & Gas to win several national and international awards in the last few years.

 

ASSET INTEGRITY AND RELIABILITY

Improvement programmes are driven to have best-in-class equipment availability. The culture is shifting from reactive to proactive maintenance through the adoption of predictive analytics-based apps, asset performance management, drone-based transmission line inspections, control room, field logbooks, among others.

HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT

HSE practices are supported by digitalisation, leading to Vedanta’s vision of zero harm, zero discharge and zero waste. For example, HSE dashboards, contact tracing mobile app, visible felt leadership app, incident learning app, and so on.

 

BUSINESS PROCESS IMPROVEMENTS

Digitally enabled supporting functions in the organisation are expected to become more efficient and productive such as HR, procurement, supply chain & logistics, finance, and so on. These functions use technologies such as upgraded ERP platform, BOTS, RPA (Robotic Process Automation), video analytics, and so on.

 

 

Shareholders, investors and lenders

A return on investment

Employees

A safe and inclusive working environment

Governments

Generating economic value for society and delivering sustainable growth

 

Local community and civil society

Investment in health, education and local businesses

Industry (suppliers, customers, peers, media)

Building long-term partnerships

    

 

FINANCIAL CAPITAL

We are focused on optimising capital allocation and maintaining a strong balance sheet while generating strong free cash flows. We also review all investments, taking into account the Group’s financial resources with a view to maximising returns to shareholders.

MANUFACTURED CAPITAL

We invest in best-in-class equipment and machinery to ensure we operate as efficiently and safely as possible, both at our current operations and in our expansion projects. This also supports our strong and sustainable cash flow generation.

INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL

As a relatively young company, we are keen to embrace technological developments and encourage innovation. We motivate our people to nurture and implement innovative ideas, which will lead to operational improvements across our operations.

HUMAN CAPITAL

We have employees drawn from across the world, and their diverse skills and experience contribute to our operations. The mining and plant operations require specialised skills for which we employ qualified technical, engineering and geology experts. In addition, we create a culture which nurtures safety, innovation, creativity and diversity, which helps us to meet our business goals while also enabling our employees to grow personally and professionally.

SOCIAL & RELATIONSHIP CAPITAL

We aim to forge strong partnerships by engaging with our key stakeholders, including shareholders and lenders, suppliers and contractors, employees, governments, communities and civil societies. These relationships help maintain and strengthen our licence to operate.

NATURAL CAPITAL

India and Africa have favourable geology and mineral potential. These regions provide us with world-class mining assets and extensive R&R. Additionally, operating our mines requires a range of resources including water and energy, which we aim to use prudently and sustainably.

FINANCIAL CAPITAL
₹372 crore		₹57,028 crore		₹77,414 crore
Equity		Gross debt		Net worth
₹61,905 crore		₹32,614 crore		₹2,578 crore
Retained earnings		Cash and cash		Capex
		equivalents

 

MANUFACTURED CAPITAL
₹106,784 crore		₹13,880 crore
Plant and Equipment		Capital Work in Progress (WIP)

 

HUMAN AND INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL INDICATORS
70,089		1,481
No. of Employees incl contractors		HSE employees incl contractors
186		8,33,941		3,259
No. of Geologists including contractors		No. of hours of Safety training		Employees covered under mentoring & support programmes

 

SOCIAL AND RELATIONSHIP CAPITAL
₹331.12 crore		CRISIL & India Ratings
Community investment		Rated by two domestic rating agencies
25		4
Strong network of		Independent Directors
global and domestic relationship banks
NATURAL CAPITAL
525 mn GJ		270 mn m3		474 mn tonnes
Energy consumed		Water consumed		Coal used
R&R Zinc India				R&R Zinc International
448 mn tonnes Including 32.9 million tonnes of zinc-lead metal and 914.2 million ounces of silver				566.4 mn tonnes Including 30.3 million tonnes of metal
R&R Oil & Gas
1,229 mmboe Gross proved and probable reserves resources

 

 

We operate across the mining value chain focusing on long-term and low-cost assets in India and Africa

EXPLORE

We invest selectively in exploration and appraisal to extend mine and reservoir life

DEVELOP

We develop world-class assets, using the latest technology to optimise productivity

EXTRACT

We operate low-cost mines and oil fields, with a clear focus on safety and efficiency

PROCESS

We focus on operational excellence and high asset utilisation to deliver top quartile cost performance and strong cash flow

MARKET

We supply our commodities to customers in a wide range of industry sectors, from automotive to construction, from energy to consumer goods

RESTORE

We manage our long-life assets as effectively as possible and return them to a natural state at the end of their useful life

*before exceptional items

₹86,863 crore		₹27,341 crore		~₹34,500 crore
Turnover		EBIDTA		Total contribution to the exchequer
₹12,151 crore		₹32.80/share		₹9.5/share
Attributable PAT*		Earnings per share (EPS)*		Dividend paid
₹13,821 crore		~19%		0.9x
FCF post-capex		ROCE		Net Debt to EBITDA
Production across various businesses
Zinc India:		Zinc International:		Oil & Gas:
1.0 mtpa		58 kt		162 kboepd
Mined metal		BMM
706 tonnes		145 kt		Power:
Silver		Gamsberg		11.3 bn kWh
Aluminium:		Pig Iron:		Steel:
1.8 mtpa		596 kt		1.2 MnT
Alumina
2 mtpa		Copper:
Aluminium		101 kt
6.49%		0.55
Attrition rate		Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR)
11.23%
Diversity ratio
42 mn		1,800
CSR programme beneficiaries		Operational Nand Ghars
2,300+		2,193
Nand Ghars built		Youth benefited from employment based skills training
30.7%		110%
Water recycled		Fly Ash utilisation rate
2.03 mn m3		94%
Water savings		High Volume Low Toxicity (HVLT) effect waste recycled
58.93 mn tCO2e		1.31 mn tCO2e
GHG emissions: Scope 1		GHG emissions: Scope 2

 

Continue focus on world-class ESG performance

We operate as a responsible business, focusing on achieving ‘zero harm, zero discharge and zero wastage’, and thus minimising our impact on the environment and society.

We promote social inclusion across our operations to promote inclusive growth.

    

    

 

FY2021 update

8 fatalities occurred in the fiscal year; there are programmes put in place to ensure better investigation quality and leadership oversight to avoid repeats

This year we focused on critical risks existing in our business

New standards for business partner management introduced along with uniform monitoring system

LTIFR reported at 0.55

We launched a social performance pilot project at our critical sites

2300+ Nand Ghars established

We conducted self -assessment across all BUs to establish the current capacity

Objectives for FY2025

Zero fatality, with 2 fatality-free years

Stack emissions to be 25% of 2018 levels. All tailing facilities to be audited and actions closed with real-time monitoring

All performance standards to be developed, implemented and part of VSAP

Employee and community exposure monitoring

Mental health programme to be initiated

Achieve zero social non-compliances. Become signatories to and participants in VPSHR. Set up an external SP advisory body

Achieve 20% reduction in GHG emission intensity from a 2012 baseline

Ensure that 40% of all new projects have a carbon rating of 4-star and above

29,000 Nand Ghars to be constructed by 2025

Skilling and employment creation for 60,000 youths

Vision

Our safety vision: Everyone goes home safe

 

Our environment vision: Zero net environmental impact

Our health vision: No impact on employees, BPs and communities due to our operations

Our social performance vision: To become a developer of choice in our areas of operation

Our carbon vision: To substantially decarbonise by 2050

KPIs

Fatalities

TRIFR

No. of Category 5 social incidents

GHG emission intensity

Number of carbon star rated projects

Compliance tracking

Source emissions tracking

Personal exposure monitoring

CSR footprint

Gender diversity

Risks

 

R1	Health, safety and environment (HSE)

 

R2	Managing relationship with stakeholders

 

R3	Tailings dam stability

 

R9	Regulatory and legal risk

 

 

Augment our Reserves & Resources (R&R) base

We look at ways to expand our R&R base through targeted and disciplined exploration programmes. Our exploration teams aim to discover mineral and oil deposits in a safe and responsible manner, and to replenish the resources that support our future growth ambitions.

    

    

 

FY2021 update

Zinc India

During the year, gross additions of 45 million tonnes were made to R&R prior to depletion of 15 million tonnes

Combined R&R estimated at 448 million tonnes, containing 32.9 million tonnes of zinc-lead metal and 914.2 million ounces of silver

Overall mine life continues to be more than 25 years

Zinc International

Combined mineral resources and ore reserves estimated at 566.4 million tonnes, containing 30.3 million tonnes of metal

Oil & Gas

Commencement of seismic acquisition and exploration drilling in OALP blocks spread across Rajasthan, Cambay and the Northeast shall enable to unlock the resource potential

Gross proved and probable R&R of 1,229 mmboe

Objectives for FY2022

Oil & Gas: Drilling commenced in Rajasthan, Cambay & North East for OALP blocks

Oil & Gas: Evaluating opportunities to commence drilling campaign of exploration and appraisal wells to build on the resource portfolio in Rajasthan

Metals: Continue to build R&R base and generate new greenfield targets for our commodities/metals

KPIs

Total 2P+2C Reserves & Resources in Oil & Gas

Total R&R in Zinc India & ZI

Risks

 

R1	Health, safety and environment (HSE)

 

R5	Discovery risk

 

R9	Regulatory and legal risk

 

    

 

Delivering on growth opportunities

We are focused on growing our operations organically by developing brownfield opportunities in our existing portfolio. Our large, well-diversified low-cost and long-life asset portfolio offers us attractive expansion opportunities, which are evaluated based on our return criteria for long-term value creation for all stakeholders.

    

    

 

FY2021 update

Zinc India

Total mine development increased by 3% to 95 km in FY2021

Environment clearance received for CLZS hydro smelter expansion by 84 kt and Zawar mines expansion by 8 lakh mtpa of ore

Back fill plants were commissioned at Zawarmala and Mochia mines

Zinc International

Significant ramp up in Gamsberg production with 145 kt zinc MIC in FY2021

Oil & Gas

New gas processing terminal construction completed; commissioning underway expected to add ~ 100 mmscfd by Q1 FY2022

Capex growth projects update:

 

•

74 wells hooked up during FY2021

 

•

Ravva drilling programme completed; ~11 kboepd of incremental volumes

Implementation of enhanced recovery project in Bhagyam and Aishwariya Fields

Monetisation of Tight Oil fields through execution of Aishwariya Barmer Hill project

ESL

Annual steel production at 1.19 million tonnes, down 4% y-o-y on account of reduced availability of hot metal due to lower production amidst the disruption caused by the pandemic

Objectives for FY2022

Zinc India

Further ramp-up of underground mines towards their design capacity of 1.2 mn mtpa

Combined paste-fill and dry tailing plant at Rajpura Dariba, which will help increase ore production from 1.2 mtpa to 2 mtpa

Setting up 300 ktpa greenfield Zinc smelter at Doswada, Gujarat

 

Zinc International

Skorpion Refinery Conversion – detailed BOQ generated, feasibility report being updated with latest information, target to get Board approval for execution by Q1 FY2022

Magnetite Project – Feasibility was completed in Q4 FY2021 0.7 mtpa modular plant has been finalised. Project will be put up for approval for start of execution in Q1 FY2022

The feasibility study for Gamsberg Phase 2 was updated. The mine design and the new reserve statement was completed with the Resource to Reserve conversion as scheduled

Oil & Gas

Unlock the potential of the exploration portfolio comprising OALP and PSC blocks

Infill projects across producing fields to add volume in near term

ESL

Embark on the expansion journey from 1.5 mtpa to 3 mtpa

To be a steelmaker amongst the top quadrant EBIDTA percentile group

KPIs

Revenue

ROCE

FCF post-capex

Growth capex

Risks

 

R8	Cairn related challenges

 

R9	Regulatory and legal risk

 

R12	Major project delivery

 

 

Optimise capital allocation and maintain a strong balance sheet

Our focus is on generating strong business cashflows and maintaining stringent capital discipline in investing in profitable high IRR projects. Our aim is to maintain a strong balance sheet through proactive liability management. We also review all investments (organic and acquisitions) based on our stringent capital allocation framework in order to maximise shareholder returns.

    

    

 

FY2021 update

Free cash flow (FCF) improvement from ₹7,130 crore to ₹13,821 crore, up 94% y-o-y

Net Debt (ND) increased from ₹21,426 crore to ₹24,414 crore

Net Debt/EBITDA at 0.9x on a consolidated basis

Dividend worth ₹3,500 crore, ₹9.5/share distributed in VEDL

Objectives for FY2022

Generate healthy free cash flow from our operations

Disciplined capex across projects to generate healthy

ROCE

Improve credit ratings

Reduce working capital

 

KPIs

FCF post-capex

Net Debt/EBITDA (Consolidated basis)

EPS (before exceptional items)

Interest cover ratio

Dividend

Risks

 

R9	Regulatory and legal risk

 

R10	Tax related matters

 

R11	Fluctuation in commodity prices (including oil) and currency exchange rates

 

R13	Access to capital

 

 

Operational excellence

We strive for all-round operational excellence to achieve benchmark performance across our businesses by debottlenecking our assets to enhance production, supported by improved digital and technology solutions. Our efforts are focused on enhancing profitability by optimising our cost and improving realisations through prudent marketing strategies.

    

    

 

FY2021 update

Zinc India

Record ore production of 15.5 million tonnes, despite disruptions on account of COVID-19

Mined metal production of 972 kt and refined zinc-lead production of 930 kt

Zinc International

BMM achieved consistent production in FY2021 (58 kt)

Gamsberg ramped up significantly with 145 kt production in FY2021 and several best demonstrated performances in ore milled tonnes, mill throughput and plant availability.

Production was partly impacted by slope failure in November 2020, but plant continued to operate, backed by healthy ore stockpile

Skorpion remained under ‘Care and Maintenance’ following geotechnical instabilities in the open pit

Oil & Gas

Average gross operated production of 162 kboepd for FY2021, impacted by COVID-19

Liquid handling capacity upgraded by 30%, major facility systems were commissioned

Aishwariya Barmer Hill surface facility commissioned; wells being hooked up progressively

Aluminium & Power

Record aluminium production at the smelters at 1,969 kt, up 3% y-o-y

Highest ever PFA sales, 28% increase y-o-y

New products development in FY2021 such as Aluminium Cylinder Head Alloy, high speed billets, 22 kg and 10 kg ingots

Record alumina production from Lanjigarh refinery at 1,841 kt, up 2% y-o-y due to debottlenecking of the refinery

Locally sourced bauxite of ~3 MnT during the year (56%); alumina cost of production reduced by ~15% y-o-y at US$235 per tonne despite COVID-19 related challenges impacting the businesses

In FY2021, there were no fresh coal imports for our smelters, thereby reducing import dependency by ~3 million tonnes

Won Radhikhapur coal block in first tranche of commercial coal block auction

FY2021 cost of production for aluminium ~US$1,347 per tonne, down by 20% y-o-y

Steel

Increased the EBITDA margin to US$95 per tonne for the year (against US$78 per tonne in FY2020) even at dip in NSR by US$7 per tonne, through better control over costs

Decrease in cost by 6 % y-o-y from US$418 per tonne to US$393 per tonne

Copper and Iron Ore

At Karnataka, production of saleable ore was 5 million tonnes, 15% higher y-o-y

Revenue increased to ₹4,528 crore, 31% higher y-o-y mainly due to twofold increase in sales volume at Goa and improved margin at Goa, Karnataka and VAB during the year

EBITDA increase to ₹1,804 crore compared with ₹878 crore in FY2020 was mainly due to improved margin and higher volume at Goa

Continued engagement with the government and local communities to restart operations at Goa and Tuticorin

 

 

Objectives for FY2022

Zinc India

Sustain cost of production at below US$1,000 per tonne through efficient ore hauling, higher volume and grades and higher productivity through ongoing efforts in automation and digitalisation

Zinc International

Ramp up Gamsberg to design capacity in H1 FY2022

Restart Skorpion post completion of geotechnical studies and feasibility completion of imported zinc oxides

Oil & Gas

Increase near term volumes by commissioning the gas processing terminal and completion of surface facilities for Aishwariya Barmer Hill

Continue to operate at a low cost-base and generate free cash flow post-capex

Aluminium

Production at Lanjigarh refinery of around 1.8-2 million tonnes, with aluminium production at smelters around 2.1-2.2 million tonnes

Hot Metal cost of production between between US$1,475- US$1,575 per tonne

Improve raw material security locally (bauxite and coal)

Increased focus on asset integrity and optimisation, quality, innovation and digitalisation

Copper & Iron ore

Continue engagement with government and relevant authorities to enable restart of operations in Goa and Tuticorin

Increase our footprint in iron ore by continuing to participate in auctions across the country, including Jharkhand

Securing EC for expansion of production capacity of Pig Iron plant by 1.7 ltpa

Advocacy for removal of E-auction/trade barrier in Karnataka

Steel

Ensuring business continuity with greater focus on reliability centred maintenance

Obtain clean Consent to Operate and environmental clearance

Raw material securitisation through long-term contracts; approaching FTA countries for coking coal

KPIs

EBITDA

Adj. EBITDA margin

FCF post-capex

ROCE

Risks

 

 

T1	BUILDING RESILIENCE AMID VOLATILITY

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered business dimensions with uncertainty becoming the order of the day. In this light, businesses have started adapting together and separately, serving the interests of their stakeholders and ensuring business continuity. Scenario planning straddles four hypothetical ones which strategic leaders such as Vedanta can plan for. These include the following:

 

a.	A ‘passing storm’ response where the overall healthcare ecosystem is bolstered post the pandemic

 

b.	‘Good company’ scenario where public-private partnerships will emerge with new ecosystems that would encourage innovation

 

c.	‘Sunrise in the east’ indicating the shift of power to the eastern side of the world such as China

 

d.	‘Lone wolves’ where the pandemic situation drags on to engage stricter protocols and government surveillance

Vedanta’s response: The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented humanitarian and economic crisis. Our metal and mining industry has sought to respond quickly to protect the health of its employees and its communities. These steps are in response to (and often ahead of) emergency measures and lockdowns implemented by governments across the world to control the spread of the pandemic.

During these testing times, our priority is to ensure the health and safety of our employees, contractors, and stakeholders, while ensuring business continuity to the extent possible. At the Group level, we have formulated various controls to prevent the spread of infection and thereby maintain business continuity. We formed a business COVID taskforce formalised from diverse departments whose task is to implement strong controls and SOPs/protocols, audit the respective units so as to ensure complete compliance to COVID-19 protocols to prevent the spread of the infection and to monitor and report the proceedings to the business CEO and Group task force.

 

T2	WINNING BACK INVESTOR CONFIDENCE

The mining industry lost out on investor confidence owing to the far-reaching downcycle that eroded value post M&A action in the past year. The companies in the sector would now need to find new ways to deliver consistent shareholder returns, enhance their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and improve their capital and operational discipline. The scenario is also becoming increasingly conducive with historical lows now history.

 

Vedanta’s response: Our focus during these times has been to ensure that we operate optimally with lowest possible cost of production.

In FY2021, we were able to sustain our low-cost advantage in aluminium by engaging structural measures. While we have optimised our coal and bauxite source mix, we also continued our journey towards improving our operational efficiencies and debottlenecking our assets for improved capacity utilisation. For Zinc India operations, we completed 1.2 MnT mined metal project activities and sustained production post-transition to a fully underground mining company.

As we look forward to the year ahead, we are operationally well positioned to deliver. In Oil & Gas, we are the largest private sector producer of crude oil in India and rank among the world’s lowest cost producer with a pipeline of assets in production, development, and exploration. In Zinc, we are the world’s largest fully integrated zinc-lead producer. In terms of Aluminium, we are India’s largest primary aluminium producer supported by our own captive power generation. We performed exceedingly well on key environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects during the year. This is validated by our ranking in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, which improved nine places to 12th globally in our industry.

 

T3	ESG-GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT DECARBONISATION

Climate change has become an accepted reality in business circles and the risks arising from the phenomenon are increasingly becoming part of their strategic dialogue. The cost of taking action with respect to decarbonisation and renewables is also reaching parity. In this light, the focus from investment houses is now on how companies are moving from strategy to on ground execution that can show tangible results.

Vedanta’s response: Vedanta has an unwavering focus on sustainability, with ESG becoming a core focus. We have a vision to sustainably decarbonise by 2050. To realise specific outcomes, we have institutionalised a separate vertical for ESG. We continuously participate in ESG forums and have a Group-wide carbon forum with CEO level engagement.

    

 

T4	ESG-OVERCOMING THE SOCIAL TRUST DEFICIT

There is a clear opportunity for miners to create social value that goes beyond compliance. Globally, high-profile disasters have muddled the reputation for mining and there is a tangible trust deficit that many miners experience. In this context, miners should explore creating long-term socioeconomic benefits for the communities in and around their impact zones. Measurement of impact of CSR programmes, for example, also gains prominence in this backdrop.

Vedanta’s response: Vedanta aims to be the developer of choice for communities, and an enabler for better livelihoods. Our Nand Ghar initiative, a novel programme aimed at women and child empowerment, has helped create significant impact in communities around our impact zones.

 

T5	ESG-CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ADDING TO COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

The third pillar of ESG – Governance, is often underrated, but can have heavy repercussions if ignored as a downside risk. However, if managed prudently, good governance can change its role to a competitive advantage. Approach to issues such as human rights, ethical conduct, diversity, cybersecurity, and evolving social norms will need to gain significance in strategy-making and Board discussions.

 

Vedanta’s response: Vedanta has an illustrious Board with 50% independent members, that guides us in our present and future roadmap. Our corporate behaviour is led by our core values and policies that align to good governance.

T6	ESG-CREATING AN AGILE SUPPLY CHAIN

The pandemic has exposed supply chain risks of mining companies, which were not actively recognised before. This validates a relook at how direct and extended supply chains work, how inventory is managed and how cost structures need to be evaluated. On the mitigation front, companies need to explore alternate supply lines, and reduce risk by creating predictable operations.

Vedanta’s response: Vedanta has an integrated value-chain which helps inherently mitigate supply chain risks to a large extent.

T7	THE PATH TOWARDS INTEGRATED OPERATIONS

The proliferation of technology in mining has unlocked several opportunities in decision-making and achieving cost advantages. Digitalisation-led business integration is a key enabler, and a factor of achieving distinct competitive advantage. It results in predictable outcomes, consequently achieving better stakeholder trust.

Vedanta’s response: Vedanta has been at the forefront of digitalisation in its industry and has invested in technologies that not only results in better efficiencies and integration, but also enhanced safety in operations.

 

T8	ADVANCING THE FUTURE OF WORK

While there has been an undercurrent of shifting workplace practices, the pandemic has brought a sea change in the way organisations manage their team, through remote operations and work-from-anywhere models. With the use of Industry 4.0 technologies, activity-heavy operations such as mining can also move to remote models, with minimal human interactions and larger system integration. Conventional ways of working now need to be re-examined and contemporary working practices adapted as the new normal.

Vedanta’s response: Vedanta has been at the forefront of digitalisation and technology. We have various initiatives throughout the Group where remote working is used to analyse real time data.

For example, at Cairn Oil and Gas, a pilot is being conducted to use video analytics to reduce manual monitoring efforts and leverage technology to automate the alert monitoring through business rules.

Similarly, long range ultrasonic testing-based solution is used for the real-time pipeline monitoring.

COVID Marshal is an AI and ML based video analytics application implemented in Vedanta Limited which analyses the video captured through CCTVs and provides the compliance reports. The data is ingested for the compliance dashboard which can be accessed real time by the Management.

In Oil & Gas, a pilot is also being run where drones are used for automating survey of pipeline and rights-of-usage to ascertain erosion, exposed pipe, vegetation overgrowth, encroachments and missing/damaged signs and markers.

At HZL, drones-based technology is leveraged to provide solutions for asset maintenance and sustainability. These solutions provide automated diagnostics from safe and frequent aerial inspections (for transmission lines, pipelines etc.) and real-time, centralised view of remote assets.

 

T9	ON THE ROAD TO ZERO HARM

The safety focus of mining companies has evolved towards zero harm, and there is a significant improvement in mining safety records. However, there is still room to improve, and companies will likely need to integrate different data pools and systems to effect better results.

Vedanta’s response: Safety is a core priority area for Vedanta, and we have instated processes and practices to enable highest standards of safety for all our people.

T10	MEETING DEMAND FOR GREEN AND CRITICAL MINERALS

With the world moving towards a greener future, the demand for materials that enable cleaner energy is on the rise. This poses a clear opportunity for mining companies, as their portfolios will be shaped in response in the near future.

Vedanta’s response: Vedanta is a core player in unearthing minerals such as zinc and steel, which are not only core inputs in realising renewable infrastructure, but also in contributing to circular economy.

 

Respective businesses review the risks, changes in the nature and extent of major risks since the last assessment, control measures and further action plans. The control measures stated in the risk matrix are also periodically reviewed by the business management teams to verify their effectiveness. These meetings are chaired by the business CEOs and attended by CXOs, senior management and functional heads concerned. The role of risk officers at each business and at the Group level is to create awareness on risks at the senior management level, and to develop and nurture a risk-management culture within the businesses. The Company’s risk-mitigation plans are integral to the KRAs / KPIs of process owners. The governance of risk management framework in the businesses is anchored with the leadership teams.

The Audit & Risk Management Committee aids the Board in the risk management process through identification and assessment of any changes in risk exposure, review of risk-control measures and by approval of remedial actions, wherever appropriate. The Committee is, in turn, supported by the Group Risk Management Committee, which helps the Audit & Risk Management Committee in evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of the risk-mitigation programme and the control systems. The Risk Management Committee meets at least four times annually to discuss risks and mitigation measures. The Committee reviews the robustness of our framework at individual businesses and progress against actions planned for key risks.

Our risk-management framework is simple and consistent and provide clarity on managing and reporting risks to our Board. Together, our management systems, organisational structures, processes, standards and code of conduct and ethics represent the system of internal control that governs how the Group conducts its business and manages the associated risks.

The Board shoulders the ultimate responsibility for the management of risks and for ensuring the effectiveness of internal control systems. It includes the Audit Committee’s report on the risk matrix, significant risks, and mitigating actions that we have put in place. Any systemic weaknesses identified by the review are addressed by enhanced procedures to strengthen the relevant controls, and these are reviewed regularly.

The Audit Committee is, in turn, assisted by the Group-level Risk Management Committee in evaluating the design and effectiveness of the risk-mitigation programme and control systems. The Group Risk Management Committee (GRMC) meets every quarter and comprises the Group Chief Executive Officer, Group Chief Financial Officer and Director- Management Assurance. The Group Head-Health, Safety, Environment & Sustainability is invited to attend these meetings. GRMC discusses key events impacting the risk profile, relevant risks and uncertainties, emerging risks and progress against planned actions.

Since it is critical to the delivery of the Group’s strategic objectives, risk management is embedded in business-critical activities, functions and processes. The risk management framework helps the Company by aligning operating controls with the Group’s objectives. It is designed to manage rather than eliminate the risk of failure to achieve business objectives and provides reasonable and not absolute assurance against material misstatement or loss. Materiality and risk tolerance are key considerations in our decision- making. The responsibility for identifying and managing risks lies with every manager and business leader.

Additionally, other key risk governance and oversight committees in the Group comprise the following:

Committee of Directors (COD) which comprises the Vice Chairman and Group CFO and supports the Board by considering, reviewing and approving all borrowing and investment-related proposals within the overall limits approved by the Board. The invitees to these committee meetings are the CEO, business CFOs, Group Head Treasury and BU Treasury Heads, depending upon the agenda matters

The Sustainability Committee reviews sustainability related risks

 

Additionally, there are various Group level Management Committees (ManComs) such as Procurement ManCom, Sustainability-HSE ManCom, CSR ManCom, and so on which work on identifying risks in those specific areas and mitigating them.

Each business has developed its own risk matrix, which is reviewed by its respective management committee/executive committee, chaired by its CEO. In addition, each business has developed its own risk register depending on the size of its operations and number of SBUs/ locations. Risks across these risk registers are aggregated and evaluated and the Group’s principal risks are identified, and a response mechanism is formulated.

 

This element is an important component of the overall internal control process from which the Board obtains assurance. The scope of work, authority and resources of the Management Assurance Services (MAS) are regularly reviewed by the Audit Committee. The responsibilities of MAS include recommending improvements in the control environment and reviewing compliance with our philosophy, policies and procedures. The planning of internal audits is approached from a risk perspective. In preparing the internal audit plan, reference is made to the risk matrix, and inputs are sought from senior management, business teams and members of the Audit Committee. In addition, we refer to past audit experience, financial analysis and the prevailing economic and business environment.

Despite COVID-induced disruptions Vedanta’s BUs dealt with its impact extremely well, resulting in an effective response. This was made possible owing to the following:

Our safety-first culture that prioritised people’s health and well-being

Our collaboration with communities, governments, and health experts ensure that leading practices are followed

Focusing on what is critical to operations and communities, while continuing to build longer-term resilience

Consistent response to the pandemic across the Group

Establishment of COVID-19 taskforces under seasoned leaders

Investments in new processes, procedures, protocols, health- testing equipment and support for workforce

As a result, our facilities remained largely operational during the pandemic, despite challenges. Rather, the disruption created an opportunity for us to identify and work on certain transformational aspects for the future. We continue to remain committed to achieving our objectives of zero harm, zero wastage and zero discharge, thus creating sustainable stakeholder value.

The order in which the risks appear in the next section does not necessarily reflect the likelihood of their occurrence or the relative magnitude of their impact on Vedanta’s businesses. The risk direction of each risk has been reviewed based on events, economic conditions, changes in business environment and regulatory changes during the year.

While Vedanta’s risk management framework is designed to help the organisation meet its objectives, there is no guarantee that the Group’s risk-management activities will mitigate or prevent these or other risks from occurring.

 

Anil Agarwal

Non-Executive Chairman

Mr. Anil Agarwal, appointed to the Board in May 2003, is the Executive Chairman of Vedanta Resources since March 2005 and chairs the Nominations Committee. He became the Non-Executive Chairman of Vedanta Limited in April 2020. Mr. Agarwal founded the Group in 1976 and has over four decades of entrepreneurial and mining experience. He has led the Group and has helped shape its strategic vision to contribute to a larger purpose towards uplifting communities. Under his leadership, Vedanta has grown from an Indian domestic miner into a global natural resources group with entities listed in a number of markets, with a world-class portfolio of large, diversified, structurally low-cost assets that are capable of generating strong cash flows.

Mr. Agarwal has this year signed the Giving Pledge, a movement of global philanthropists who commit to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes. The Anil Agarwal Foundation is committed towards empowering communities, transforming lives and facilitating nation building through sustainable and inclusive growth.

Nand Ghars have been created as model anganwadis which are focused on eradicating child malnutrition, providing education, healthcare, and empowering women with skill development. The Anil Agarwal Foundation has teamed up with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2, which aims to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030.

Navin Agarwal

Executive Vice Chairman

Mr. Navin Agarwal has been with the Group since its inception and has four decades of strategic executive experience. Under his stewardship, Vedanta has enjoyed leadership position in all the major sectors in which it operates. Over the years, he has been instrumental in building a highly successful meritocratic organisation, anchored by an extraordinary force of 100,000 employees. He spearheads our strategy through a mix of organic growth and value-generating acquisitions leading to Vedanta’s transformation into a globally diversified natural resources Company.

He is passionate about developing leadership talent and has been responsible for creating a culture of excellence at Vedanta through the application of advanced technologies and global best practices. He drives Vedanta’s unwavering commitment to the highest standards of corporate governance and engagement with key stakeholders. His vision is to gradually unlock the enormous potential of the natural resources sector and make it an engine of growth for India. The overarching vision of empowering the nation by achieving self-sufficiency in the natural resources sector remains close to his heart.

In recognition of his exceptional distinction in the fields of business and entrepreneurship and contribution to the natural resources sector, he was conferred the ‘Industrialist of the Year’ award by the Bombay Management Association in 2018. He is a fervent advocate of sustainable development and is committed to the empowerment of women and the promotion of culture and sports at all levels.

 

Padmini Somani

Non-Executive Independent Director

Ms. Padmini Somani has been active in the philanthropy and development space for over 20 years. She is the vision behind Salaam Bombay Foundation that she founded in 2002, working with more than 3 million children across India. She has been recognised for her work in youth education, health, and skilling programmes with the vulnerable and marginalised populations. Having established the largest preventive school-based programme in tobacco control in India, she has also received several awards and recognition including from the World Health Organization, and the Mayor’s citation from Mr. Michael Bloomberg. Ms. Somani holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Sophia College for Women, Mumbai and completed her Master’s in Financial Economics from University of London. She has also been awarded the prestigious Silver Jubilee Pendent and more recently the ‘Distinguish Alumnus’ award by her Alma Mater. She is also an alumnus of the London School of Economics and the London Business School. Ms. Somani serves on various Boards of companies, organisations, charities, and educational institutes.

Dindayal Jalan

Non-Executive Independent Director

Mr. D.D. Jalan is a Chartered Accountant and has over 40 years of extensive experience in managing business and finance of large metal & mining companies.

He is currently an entrepreneur and an Independent Director on the Boards of some prominent companies. In his previous role, before superannuation in 2016, he was the Group CFO of London listed Vedanta Resources Plc. and an Executive Director and CFO of Vedanta Ltd.

Mr. Jalan started his corporate journey in 1978 with Aditya Birla Group’s Hindusthan Gas & Industries Ltd as a management trainee, rising upto the rank of Finance & Commercial head. He was instrumental in transforming the iron ore business and setting up a greenfield SME business for Essel Mining, an associate company.

In 1996, he moved to Birla Copper to lead the Finance

& Commercial function. He was part of the core team instrumental in setting up and operationalising the greenfield Copper Smelting project into a robust operating business. He was responsible for raising finance, building the finance team, putting in place strong business process and systems, negotiating stable sources for long-term raw material supplies, setting up commodity hedging desk and building a robust marketing organisation.

In the year 2001, he moved to Sterlite Industries (now Vedanta Ltd) as CEO of its Copper mining business in Australia for ~5 years. He led the turnaround of the business, working in a multicultural environment. In 2003, he was appointed the CFO of Sterlite Industries. In 2005, he was elevated to CFO of Vedanta Resources PLC, a FTSE 250, London listed company. In this role he provided strategic leadership to the Finance function with a clear focus on enhancing shareholders’ value by improving capital management, governance framework, systems and processes, developing a robust Finance team. He closely worked with the CEO to drive business performance.

 

Sunil Duggal

Whole-Time Director & Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Sunil Duggal became the Chief Executive Officer of Vedanta Limited from August 1, 2020. Prior to this, he was the interim Chief Executive Officer of Vedanta Limited from April 6, 2020. He was appointed the Chief Executive Officer and Whole-time Director of Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL) in 2015. He had been associated with HZL since 2010 as the Executive Director, and thereafter became the Chief Operating Officer in 2012, and subsequently the Deputy Chief Executive Officer in 2014.

In a career spanning over 37 years, he has been a result- oriented professional, leading high-performance teams with confidence, and has spent 20+ years in various leadership roles. His critical ability is to calmly navigate through tough and challenging times, meticulously nurture and grow a business, evaluate opportunities and risks, and successfully drive efficiency and productivity, while reducing costs and inefficiencies and delivering innovative solutions to challenges.

His consistent focus on adopting best-in-class mining and smelting techniques, state-of-the-art environment- friendly technologies, automation and digitalisation has enhanced Vedanta’s industry leadership. Born and brought up in Amritsar, his initial education began from DAV school, Amritsar. He has an Electrical Engineering degree from the Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala. He is an alumnus of the International Institute for Management Development, Lausanne - Switzerland and the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, India. Before he joined Vedanta, he was working with Ambuja Cements Limited.

He is serving as the Vice Chairman of International Zinc Association, President of the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries, and President of Indian Lead Zinc Development Association. He has also been appointed as the Chair of Confederation of Indian Industry National Committee on Mining.

Upendra Kumar Sinha

Non-Executive Independent Director

Mr. Sinha has served as the Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) from February 2011 to March 2017. He was instrumental in bringing about key capital market reforms. Under his leadership, SEBI introduced significant regulatory amendments to the various acts enhancing corporate governance and disclosure norms. Prior to his role in SEBI, he was the Chairman & MD of UTI Asset Management Company Pvt. Ltd. and has also worked for the Department of Economic Affairs under the Ministry of Finance.

 

Mahendra Kumar Sharma

Non-Executive Independent Director

Mr. Sharma retired in May 2007 as the Vice Chairman of Hindustan Unilever Limited. As Vice Chairman he had responsibility for HR, Legal & Secretarial, Corporate Affairs, Corporate Communications, Corporate Real Estate functions and New Ventures, Plantations & Export businesses of the Company.

He displays passion for ensuring the highest standards of corporate governance and adherence to responsible and ethical conduct in all aspects of business operations. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Arts and Bachelor of Law Degree from Canning College, University of Lucknow, Post Graduate Diploma in Personnel Management from Department of Business Management, University of Delhi and Diploma in Labour Laws from Indian Law Institute, Delhi. In 1999, he was nominated to attend Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He served on the seven-member Committee constituted by the Government of India for redrafting the Companies Act and was also a member of the Naresh Chandra Committee constituted by the Government of India which formulated norms for corporate governance in India.

Priya Agarwal

Non-Executive Non-Independent Director

Ms. Agarwal brings to the Board her experience in Public Relations with Ogilvy & Mather and in Rediffusion Y&R. She has done B.Sc. Psychology with Business Management from the University of Warwick in the UK. She anchors ESG, CSR, PR & Communications for the Group.

 

Sunil Duggal

Whole-Time Director & Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Duggal became the Chief Executive Officer of Vedanta Limited from August 1, 2020. Prior to this, he was the interim Chief Executive Officer of Vedanta Limited from April 6, 2020. He was appointed the Chief Executive Officer and Whole-time Director of Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL) in 2015. He had been associated with HZL since 2010 as the Executive Director, and thereafter became the Chief Operating Officer in 2012, and subsequently the Deputy Chief Executive Officer in 2014.

In a career spanning over 37 years, he has been a result-oriented professional, leading high-performance teams with confidence, and has spent 20+ years in various leadership roles. His critical ability is to calmly navigate through tough and challenging times, meticulously nurture and grow a business, evaluate opportunities and risks and successfully drive efficiency and productivity, while reducing costs and inefficiencies and delivering innovative solutions to challenges.

His consistent focus on adopting best-in-class mining and smelting techniques, state-of-the-art environment- friendly technologies, automation and digitalisation has enhanced Vedanta’s industry leadership. Born and brought up in Amritsar, his initial education began from DAV school, Amritsar. He has an Electrical Engineering degree from the Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala. He is an alumnus of the International Institute for Management Development, Lausanne - Switzerland and the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, India. Before he joined Vedanta, he was working with Ambuja Cements Limited.

He is serving as the Vice Chairman of International Zinc Association, President of the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries, and President of Indian Lead Zinc Development Association. He has also been appointed as the Chair of Confederation of Indian Industry National Committee on Mining.

Sharad Kumar Gargiya

Group Chief Commercial Officer

Mr. Gargiya has been appointed as the Group Chief Commercial Officer of Vedanta from April 2020. He has been associated with the Vedanta Group since October 1998 and has held key senior leadership roles as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Commercial Officer across the Group companies. He has been integral to the Vedanta Group Executive Committee and the Group Management Committee. He is a member of the Group Ethics Committee since 2016, and a leading member of the Group Insurance Council for over five years.

A versatile leader, with over 22 years of experience, he formulates and executes strategic initiatives, driving business excellence, and cultural transformation. He has contributed significantly to unlocking Vedanta’s business value through his leadership and strategic roles in telecom cable, copper, aluminium, power business and zinc. He is passionate about sustainability and resource productivity. He has always been an early adopter of advanced technologies and processes to increase efficiencies and optimise cost with a focus on building automation and digitalisation of operational activities. He defines ‘personal successes’ as his ability to make ‘others successful’. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Bachelor of Commerce. He has attended the General Management Programme at Harvard Business School in 2011.

 

Madhu Srivastava

Chief Human Resources Officer

Ms. Srivastava was appointed the Chief Human Resources Officer of the Vedanta Group in December 2018. She has been associated with Vedanta for over eight years, and in her earlier role, she was the Chief Human Resources Officer of Cairn - Oil and Gas business for close to three years. During this time, she was also leading Talent Acquisition and Diversity & Inclusion functions for the Group. Under her leadership, Vedanta has put in place the right HR policies, progressive and globally benchmarked people practices and frameworks for talent acquisition, talent management, performance management and rewards and recognition.

She has over two decades of experience across HR and sales, marketing and operations, spanning the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Telecom, Information Technology Enabled Service (ITES), Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) and natural resources industries. Ms. Srivastava started her professional journey in 1999 with Godrej, where she handled sales in Gujarat and Maharashtra and later moved to the Corporate Sales & Marketing role. Post working with companies such as GE Capital and Reliance in operations and marketing profiles, she started her HR journey in 2006 by joining Genpact as Assistant Vice President, Talent Acquisition where she led middle-management hiring. Subsequently, she went on to lead the recruitments for Citibank’s India operations as Vice President, Human Resource before joining the Vedanta Group in 2012. Ms. Srivastava completed her Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) in marketing and sales from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.

Ajay Goel

Deputy Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Goel has been appointed as Deputy Chief Financial Officer of Vedanta Limited, effective March 23, 2021 based at Delhi. As Deputy CFO, Mr. Goel is responsible for Financial Planning & Analysis, Accounting and Consolidation, Controllership, Audit, Tax, Secretarial & Compliance and Risk Management. He is driving business performance monitoring and reporting with a focus on benchmarking and analytics. He brings 21 years of rich experience in global multinational companies in FMCG sector, including General Electric, Nestle, Coca Cola and Diageo. Mr. Goel joins us from Diageo - USL and under his leadership, the company achieved highest standards of Corporate Governance, Reporting, Tax management, Treasury restructuring, Optimization of borrowing costs. Ajay is a national rank holder both as Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary. He earlier completed his B.Com (Hon.) from St. Xavier’s College in Accounting and Business Management.

 

Ajay Goel

Deputy Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Goel has been appointed as Deputy Chief Financial Officer of Vedanta Limited, effective March 23, 2021 based at Delhi. As Deputy CFO, Mr. Goel is responsible for Financial Planning & Analysis, Accounting and Consolidation, Controllership, Audit, Tax, Secretarial & Compliance and Risk Management. He is driving business performance monitoring and reporting with a focus on benchmarking and analytics. He brings 21 years of rich experience in global

multinational companies in FMCG sector, including General Electric, Nestle, Coca Cola and Diageo. Mr. Goel joins us from Diageo - USL and under his leadership, the company achieved highest standards of Corporate Governance, Reporting, Tax management, Treasury restructuring, Optimization of borrowing costs. Ajay is a national rank holder both as Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary. He earlier completed his B.Com (Hon.) from

St. Xavier’s College in Accounting and

Business Management.

 

Arun Misra

Chief Executive Officer, HZL

Mr. Misra was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer, HZL from August 2020. Prior to this he held the position of Deputy Chief Executive Officer, HZL since joining the company in November 20, 2019. In his previous role, he was associated with TATA Steel Limited as Vice President of raw materials. He has

over three decades of rich and diverse experience in leading various strategic positions within TATA Steel. Mr. Misra holds a BTech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, a diploma in mining and beneficiation from the University of New South Wales Sydney and a diploma in general management from CEDEP, France.

 

Laxman Shekhawat

Business Head, VZI

Mr. Shekhawat was appointed as the Business Head, anchoring the ManCom of Vedanta’s Zinc International Division and CMT to drive business growth on 24 April 2020. Previously, Mr. Shekhawat held the role of Director - Operations of HZL from February 2019. He holds a BTech in Mining Engineering and has been working with HZL since 1990. With over three decades of experience in mining and

engineering, Mr. Shekhawat has served in various leadership positions in mining and engineering companies for over a decade. He is instrumental in developing and executing strategies to unlock the full potential of HZL mines and bring the best practices in the mining portfolio. In 2017, he was awarded the prestigious National Geoscience Award by the President of India.

 

Chhavi Nath Singh

Chief Executing Officer, Aluminium - Jharsuguda, Odisha

Mr. Singh is the Chief Executive Officer of our Aluminium business-Jharsuguda, Odisha since July 2019. He joined Vedanta in 2016 as the Chief Operating Officer of Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd. He has a rich 38-year experience in the power industry and has played a pivotal role in the stabilisation of TSPL’s operations. He

has also worked for companies such as the National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd., Essar Power and JSW Energy Ltd. He has a post-graduate degree (PGDBM) from the Management Development Institute, Gurgaon and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad (formerly Motilal Nehru Regional Engineering College).

 

Rahul Sharma

Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Aluminium

Mr. Sharma joined the Group in 1998 and is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Vedanta’s Aluminium business since 24

November 2020. Before he took up this role, he worked as the Chief Executive

Officer (Acting) of Alumina business from April 2019 and as Director – Corporate Strategy (Aluminium and Power).

Mr. Sharma has a diversified experience of over 25 years and has held leadership positions at Vedanta Limited and Sterlite Technologies Ltd. Before he joined Vedanta, he was the Chief Marketing Officer (Domestic and International) and Business Head - Integrated Management System at Sterlite Technologies Ltd.

He is one of the prominent personalities of India’s Metal & Mining industry and has been playing a significant role in formulating and catalysing various policies and creating a strategic framework for numerous government reforms for the development of exploration, mining and non-ferrous metal sector in the country in the most sustainable manner. He is also the office

bearer of various eminent industry associations, including the current President of Aluminium Association of India (AAI), Chairman of Indian Captive Power Producers Association (ICPPA), and Co-Chair of FICCI’s Mining Committee. In recognition of his exemplary leadership, he has been conferred various awards and accolades including People’s CEO of the Year Award 2020 and Business Leader of the Year Award at the International Conference on Non-Ferrous Metals-2017 for his contribution to India’s Metal and Mining industry. An IIM alumnus (Ahmedabad Executive General Management programme), Mr. Sharma has an MBA in Marketing and a B.E. in Electronics and Communication.

 

Abhijit Pati,

Chief Executive Officer, BALCO

Mr. Pati was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of BALCO in July 2019. Prior to this, he was the Chief Executive

Officer of our Aluminium business, Jharsuguda from March 2015. Earlier, he was the President and Chief Operating Officer of our Aluminium and Power business at Odisha since April 2012. He has over three decades of experience in the aluminium industry. Prior to joining us, he was the Vice President at Hindalco Industries Limited. He started his career as an engineer with the Indian Aluminium Company in 1989. He received the

‘Exceptional Contributor Award’ from the Aditya Birla Group Chairman, Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla for his significant contribution to turn around Hirakud Aluminium Smelter in 2006 and won the prestigious British Sword of Honor for the Hirakud Smelter in 1999.

He is a member of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency under the Ministry of Power, Government of India. He also holds the position of Vice President in Aluminium Association of India and is member of the Governing body. He is a two time gold medallist from esteemed institutes such as the Calcutta University and International Management Institute, New Delhi. Mr. Pati has a first-class honours Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Calcutta

University and a Master’s in Business

Administration from the International Management Institute, New Delhi.

 

Ajay Kapur

Chief Executive Officer, Aluminium and Power Mr. Kapur was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer, Aluminium and Power in March 2019, and took on an additional role as the Managing Director of Commercial on 24 November 2020. He leads the Aluminium and Power business for Vedanta comprising 2.3 mtpa installed smelter capacity, 8 GW of power and 2 mtpa of alumina refinery. Prior to his appointment at Vedanta Limited, he was the Managing Director and Chief Executive

Officer of Ambuja Cements. He started his career as an Executive Assistant to the founder and then Managing Director. He went on to handle various strategic positions at Ambuja Cements with his last position as the MD and CEO. Mr. Kapur holds a Bachelor’s degree in economics from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, MBA from KJ Somaiya Institute, Mumbai and is an alumnus of Wharton’s Advanced

Management Programme.

 

Vikas Sharma,

Chief Executive Officer, TSPL

Mr. Sharma was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of TSPL-our Power business in July 2019. He was appointed as the Whole-time Director designated as the CEO and WTD from October 2019. Prior to his stint at TSPL, he was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer and Whole-time Director of BALCO in March 2017. He has experience of 31+ years in various national and multinational companies. He has been with HMT Watches Limited, Su-Raj Diamonds India Private Limited, AMP India Private Limited (now Tyco Electronics), Praxair India Private Limited, Jindal Praxair Oxygen Company Limited

and JSW Steel Limited in various key positions.

Mr. Sharma joined Vedanta Group as the location head of Chanderiya Smelter of HZL in 2012 and was gradually elevated to the Chief Operating Officer of Smelters division of HZL in June 2014. During his tenure at Vedanta, he played an integral role in the Company’s growth and made significant contribution in safety, productivity and people development. He holds a Bachelor’s degree (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from Engineering College Kota, University of Rajasthan and a Master’s in Business Administration in Marketing from Sikkim Manipal University, Gangtok, India.

 

Prachur Sah,

Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Cairn Oil & Gas

Mr. Shah joined the Group as Director New Ventures and Reserves of Cairn from 21 August 2018, and was made the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Cairn Oil & Gas on 19 October 2020. He has since played a key role towards realising Cairn’s broader vision and is responsible for unlocking value through monetisation of our new exploration blocks under OALP. Prior to joining the Group, Mr. Sah had 19 years of rich and diverse

experience at Schlumberger and has worked across geographies including Houston, South America, UAE and India. At Schlumberger, he held various roles in Operations, Transformation and Business Development, and left Schlumberger as the Managing Director for India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Mr. Sah holds a Bachelor’s in Electrical and Electronics from IIT Mumbai and a Master’s in Oil and Gas Management from Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh.

 

Pankaj Kumar,

Chief Executive Officer (Copper Operations Tuticorin, Silvassa and Fujairah Gold FZC & Director, MEL)

Mr. Kumar was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of our copper operations in Tuticorin, Silvassa and Fujairah Gold FZC and Director of MEL in March 2019. He is also anchoring the Group’s Quality Assurance. In his career of over three decades, he has worked with large conglomerates such as Tata Steel, Mittal Steel, Adani Ports, Gujarat

Guardian Limited and United Breweries Limited. Prior to joining us at Sterlite Copper as Chief Executive Officer, he was the Chief Operating Officer at Hindustan Zinc Limited. Mr. Kumar holds a BTech (Hons.) in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and a post-graduate diploma in Business Management with specialisation in Operations Management and Information Technology from XLRI - Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur, India.

 

Sauvick Mazumdar,

Chief Executive Officer, Sesa Goa

Mr. Mazumdar is the Chief Executive Officer of Sesa Goa and was appointed on 12 July 2019. Prior to this role he was the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Sesa Goa and Vice President since 1 October 2016. He joined the organisation in 1994; he is a home-grown leader who rose to the ranks from a GET to CEO. He is a well-seasoned executive with 24+ years of extensive experience, having built a reliable reputation for achieving business growth through strategic direction, diverse perspectives and proactive

leadership. He is responsible for the overall operations and expansion projects of the Iron Ore & Ferro Alloys business within India — Goa and Karnataka along with value- added business (pig iron, met coke, and power), Jharkhand, Bellary, overseas projects at Liberia and Ferro Alloys business at FACOR in Odisha. He holds a BTech degree in Mining Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Surathkal Karnataka and a First-Class Mines Manager’s Certificate of Competency from DGMS, the Government of India, Dhanbad.

 

Pankaj Malhan,

Chief Executive Officer and Whole-time Director, ESL

Mr. Malhan is the Chief Executive Officer and Whole-time Director of ESL and joined ESL in October 2018. He has over 20 years of industry experience and joined ESL from Tata Steel, where he was the Head of Engineering and Project. He was responsible for leading Tata Steel’s capital expansion programmes. He was associated with the Tata Group since 2000, and has held various senior

management positions at Tata Steel, Tata Blue Scope Steel Limited and Tata Power Limited. Prior to joining the Tata Group, he had worked with Indian Acrylics Limited and Fisher Rosemount Limited. He holds a BTech in Instrumentation and Control from the National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, India, and also has done post-graduate diploma in Business Management from XLRI – Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur, India.

 

Dilip Golani,

Management Assurance Services, Vedanta Group

Mr. Golani now heads the Group’s Management Assurance Services function. He previously headed the Sales and Marketing division for HZL and the Group’s Performance Management function. Prior to joining the Group in April 2000, he was a member of the Unilever corporate audit team responsible for auditing the Unilever group companies in Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Prior to that,

he was responsible for managing operations and marketing functions for one of the exports businesses of Unilever India. He has over 31 years of experience and has previously worked with organisations such as Union Carbide India Limited and Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited. He holds a BTech in Mechanical Engineering and has completed his post- graduate studies in Industrial Engineering and Management from the National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai, India.

 

Andrew Lewin,

Group Health, Safety, Environment and Sustainability Head

Mr. Lewin joined as the Group Health, Safety, Environment and Sustainability Head in February 2020. He has over 33 years of experience within mining and Oil & Gas industries. He was previously the Managing Director at Spectrum Risk Consulting, Australia. He has also held multiple senior roles at BHP Billiton, Newmont Mining Corporation and other

companies across the US, Australia and UK with responsibility for health, safety, environment and sustainability assurance. He has done PhD in Chemistry from the University of Waterloo and Postgraduate Diploma in Health and Safety from Aston University, England. He also holds an M.Sc. degree in physics from The University of Manchester, and a BSc (Hons) degree in Chemistry from the University of Bristol.

 

Varun Kapoor,

Director – Investor Relations, Vedanta Group

Mr. Kapoor was appointed as the Director – Investor Relations for the Group on 2 January 2021. Before he took up this role, he was the Chief (Strategy & Business Excellence) of Cairn Oil & Gas business. He is working towards enhancing the quality, depth and diversity of our shareholder base and investors to ensure optimum valuation for the Company. Mr. Kapoor has 18+ years of rich leadership and employee experience, having joined

Cairn in 2008 and has worked in various domains such as Mergers & Acquisitions, Commercial & New Business, Gas SBU Asset Management, Business Strategy, Corporate Planning and Business Excellence. Prior to joining Cairn, Mr. Kapoor had experience in buy-side and sell-side equity research with top-tier funds and banks like Fidelity, Deutsche Bank, S&P Crisil. He holds a PGDM from IIM Calcutta and a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Delhi University.

 

Roma Balwani,

Senior Director,

Group Communications and Brand

Ms. Balwani was appointed as the Senior Director of Communications and Brand from December 2020. Prior to this role, she was holding the position as the Director of Communications and Brand since October 2019. Earlier she was Sr. Advisor from April 2019. Her prior stint with Vedanta was as the President- Group Communications, Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility from April 2014 till August 2017. Prior to joining our Company, she was the Chief Communications Officer at Mahindra and Mahindra Limited. With over three decades of experience, she has won several Indian and international awards and accolades and she speaks at several summits on Sustainable Development

and Communications in India and the overseas. She has the distinction of being included for three consecutive years in the Holmes Global Report, USA, a recognition in the Global Influence 100 listing of In-house Communicators. She is a Director on the Board of John Cockerill, India (formerly CMI FPE Ltd.), the Indian subsidiary of the Belgian company John Cockerill.

Ms. Balwani also chairs the CSR and NR Committees as a Board member. She graduated in Economics from the Mumbai University and completed her post-graduation (Diploma) in marketing management from Sasmira’s Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai and has completed executive management programme at Harvard Business School, Massachusetts, USA.

 

Anand Laxshmivarahan R,

Interim Group Chief Digital Officer (CDO), Vedanta Limited

Mr. Anand was appointed as the Interim Group Chief Digital Officer (CDO) for Vedanta Limited in June 2020. His responsibilities entail driving digital-led interventions across the business with a focus on achieving the organisation’s goals on enhanced reserves, improved recovery, enhanced Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE), operational and people excellence. He joined Vedanta in 2018 as the Chief Digital Officer in the Oil & Gas business. Mr. Anand is a Digital Transformation Leader with over 21 years of industry experience working with global multinationals in various key business and technical roles. He has two decades

of exposure to systems and technologies within Oil & Gas and Manufacturing domains. His previous experiences include Oil & Gas consulting working with global majors on digital transformation programmes.

Before joining Vedanta, he was with industrial automation companies focusing primarily on process control and automation systems within manufacturing and Oil & Gas segments. He has worked with companies such as Wipro Technologies, Honeywell, General Electric and Siemens. He has completed his BE in Electronics and Telecommunication from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Maharashtra and Master’s from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

 

Dhiraj Nayyar,

Director, Economics and Policy, Vedanta Limited

Mr. Nayyar was appointed as the Director, Economics and Policy in October 2019. Prior to this appointment, he was the Chief Economist of Vedanta Limited since October 2018. Before joining Vedanta, he was Officer on Special Duty and Head, Economics, Finance and Commerce at NITI Aayog, Government of India (GOI) from October 2015 till October 2018. He has 15+ years of experience in the realm of economics. In this role, functionally equivalent to Joint Secretary, GoI, he was responsible for all policy matters related to the Departments of Economic Affairs, Revenue, Financial Services, Investment and Public Asset Management and Commerce. He was Secretary of the

Inter-Ministerial Committee on Sick and Loss-Making Public-Sector Enterprises, Member-Secretary of NITI Aayog’s Committee on Strategic Disinvestment and Member, Spices Board. Prior to joining the government, Mr. Nayyar spent several years in the media in senior positions. He was an India columnist at Bloomberg View, Managing Editor at The Quint, Editor-at-large at firstpost.com, Deputy Editor at India Today and Opinion Editor at Financial Express. He did his Bachelor’s in economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Merton College, Oxford and M. Phil in Development Economics from Trinity College, Cambridge where he also pursued doctoral research in Economics and taught Development Economics.

 

Leena Verenkar,

Head -Corporate Social

Responsibility, Vedanta

Ms. Verenkar was appointed the Head of Corporate Social responsibility of Vedanta in October 2019. She also holds the additional responsibility of the Department of Chief of Advocacy & Public relations and Head of Corporate Social Responsibility for Sesa Iron Ore Business since 2015. Prior to this role, she was the Head of CSR of Iron Ore, Goa since 2010. Leena started her career with our Company in 1996, in the field of environment management and compliance and led the environment

team for 12 years. She has 25+ years of experience in environment management, community relations, advocacy and public relations. She holds a Master’s degree in Microbiology from the Goa University and in Ecology and Environment from the Bhopal University, India. She has Fulbright Scholarship by the US Foundation in India and LEAD fellowship by Lead India. She was also recognised as the Women Leader of the Year by Economic Times and 100 Most Impacful CSR Leaders (a global listing) by World CSR in 2017. She has been a recipient of Great Manager’s Award in 2019.

 

Vikash Jain,

Group General Counsel- Legal

Mr. Jain was appointed as the General Counsel for legal matters across the Group in March 2021. He also continues to hold the responsibility as the General Counsel – Oil & Gas Business, Vedanta Limited. He joined our Company in March 2016 as Vice President and General Counsel – Aluminium Business. He has over 25 years of experience in handling complex litigations, contract negotiations, regulatory issues, compliance assurance, mergers and

acquisitions, foreign collaborations, joint ventures, advocacy, investor relations and Taxation (Direct & Indirect) etc. Prior to joining Vedanta, he has had experience working with organisations like Transocean, Jubilant Group, Hindustan Oil Exploration Company Limited, Endurance Group, and so on. A law graduate, he is also a qualified company secretary and an associate member of the Insurance Institute of India. He is also pursuing his Executive MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

 

1.89 million GJ

Energy conserved

(FY2020: 1.75 million GJ)

 

~₹331 crore

Community investment

(FY2020: ₹296 crore)

 

30.7%

Water recycling rate

(FY2020: 29%)

 

VEDANTA SUSTAINABILITY FRAMEWORK

Developed in line with global standards from international bodies such as International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), International Finance Corporation (IFC), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and SDGs, the Framework comprises several policies, standards and guidance notes which facilitate its execution.

8

Policies

Biodiversity, Energy & Carbon, HIV-AIDS, Human Rights, Social, Supplier & Contractor Sustainability Management, Water

87

Standards & Guidance Notes

Covering all the policy subject areas

In line with ICMM, IFC Performance Standards, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

Robust monitoring

Annual audit (VSAP) conducted at all Vedanta locations to check compliance with VSF

Monitored by Group ExCo

Please refer to the Sustainable Development Report 2021 for more information

 

VEDANTA SUSTAINABILITY ASSURANCE PROCESS (VSAP)

VSAP is our sustainability risk assurance tool, which is used to assess the compliance of all our businesses with the Vedanta Sustainability Framework. This meticulously developed assurance process helps embed sustainable development into every activity that we undertake.

VSAP is an annual process with clear tracking of results by the Sustainability Committee, and the Executive Committee, which in turn reports to the Board.

OUR KEY STAKEHOLDERS

At Vedanta, we engage with several stakeholder groups while operating our business and creating measurable social impact. The list below summarises the key stakeholder groups which have a bearing on our operations.

VEDANTA

Local Community

Employees

Shareholders, Investors, & Lenders

Civil Society

Industry (Suppliers, Customers, Peers, Media)

Governments

 

High

 

M1	Energy & Climate Change

 

M2	Water Management

 

M3	Solid Waste Management

 

M4	Air Emissions

 

M5	Biodiversity

 

M6	Health & Safety

 

M7	Community Development

 

M8	Supply Chain Sustainability

 

M9	Grivance Management

 

M10	Compliance to Government Regulations

 

M11	Upholding Rights of Indigenous People

 

M12	Ethical Business Practices

 

M13	Diversity & Equal Opportunity

Act

Medium

 

M14	Noise & Vibration

 

M15	Tailings Dam Management

 

M16	Human Rights

 

M17	Resource Efficiency

 

M18	Transparent Disclosure

 

M19	Materials Management

 

M20	Learning and Development

 

M21	Use of Recycled Material

 

M22	Brand Salience

 

M23	Innovation

 

M24	Governance for Sustainability

 

Manage

Low

 

M25	Land Acquisition & Rehabilitation

 

 

Observe

 

Energy management & climate change

As a large consumer of fossil-fuel based power, we recognise the climate-related risks associated with our business activities. We understand the implications of our energy consumption, both in terms of its cost to the natural environment as well as cost to the operations; and are committed to meet our energy demands, while limiting our carbon emissions. We remain fully supportive of the outcomes of the Paris Agreement and have taken on carbon reduction targets in alignment with the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) of the Government of India.

UN SDGs and targets linkage

 

Goal: SDG 12 –		Goal: SDG 13 –
Responsible production		Climate action
and consumption		Target: 13.2 - Integrate
Target: 12.2 – Achieve		climate change measures
sustainable management		into strategies, polices,
and efficient use of natural		and planning
resources

Targets & strategies

We had aligned ourselves with the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) of the Government of India and had committed to reduce our GHG emissions intensity by 20% by 2025 from a 2012 baseline.

Till FY2021, we have achieved ~13.6 million tonnes of avoided GHG emissions since 2012. Our long-term target is to substantially de-carbonise by 2050 and we are currently on the path to develop a plan.

Performance

 

 

Waste management in a safe and responsible manner is a crucial priority for our businesses. The hazardous wastes comprise used/spent oil, waste refractories, spent pot lining and residual sludge from smelters. On the other hand, high-volume and low-toxicity wastes constitute the non-hazardous wastes. These are fly ash (from captive and merchant power plants), red mud (aluminium refinery waste), jarofix (from zinc smelting), slag, lime grit (process residues from smelters and aluminium refineries) and phosphogypsum (phosphoric acid plant).

In FY2021, we recycled 94% of the high-volume-low-effect wastes such as fly ash, slag, and jarosite. For the 2nd year in a row, we could reutilise more than 100% of the fly ash generated in the year, by recycling legacy waste.

 

Tailings dam management

Integral to mining operations, tailings dams (if breached) can cause significant damage to the environment and to the neighbouring communities. The Company oversees 18 active and five inactive, and one closed tailings management facilities (TMFs). Our principal concern is to ensure the safety of the people who live downstream from our dams. All but one1 tailings facilities have undergone an independent audit and assessment in the last 12 months by Golder Associates.

We have also introduced a tailings dam management standard to ensure that our Group companies adhere to standard practices while managing their dam structures.

 

UN SDGs and target linkage

Goal: SDG 12 – Responsible production and consumption

Target 12.5 - Substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse

 

Water management

While access to a steady water supply is critical for mining and smelting operations, host communities and the natural ecosystem and biodiversity of the area also rely on water. Hence, the responsible use of this shared resource is a critical imperative for us and for all our stakeholders.

Our Group water policy administered through our water management standard is in place and our approach is to keep it as a core factor while making decisions, either for a new project or an existing one. Water-screening assessment to identify sensitive water resources, aquatic habitats and any known or suspected water resource constraints in proximity to each operation, is a must and has been conducted by all our businesses. We have steadily increased our water recycling rate in the last three years.

UN SDGs and target linkage

 

Goal: SDG 6 - Clean water and sanitation for all   Target: 6.4 - Increase water use efficiency and ensure sustainable withdrawals		Goal: SDG 15 - Life on land   Target: 15.9 - Introduce biodiversity management and planning into development processes

Performance

 

Total water consumption Water recycled/reused (% Water recycled)

 

Air emissions

The impact of emissions on employees, communities and the natural surroundings are closely observed, evaluated and documented for corrective actions and future reference. We use best-in-class technologies to reduce to the minimum any particulate release.

The release of Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM), SOx and NOx are monitored as a part of our consistent efforts to keep the ambient air quality safe. Lead emissions in our zinc operations, fluoride emissions in our copper and aluminium operations, and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in our aluminium operations are also checked regularly to adhere to our Environmental Management Standard.

Performance

 

 

CASE STUDY

Responsible tailings utilisation: all round benefits

One of the key aspects of mine sustainability is its post-mining restoration. Typically, to maintain structural stability of the mines, miners undertake the process of backfilling material into underground voids created by their activity. Backfilling is usually conducted using cementitious material such as concrete. However, this can prove to be a costly affair, with larger negative environmental footprint.

At Hindustan Zinc, Vedanta’s zinc division, we took up an innovative and contemporary approach to backfilling. In exploring economically viable mixtures to execute backfilling, we found an opportunity to use mine tailings (leftover material after ore separation). This played out to be beneficial in more ways than one, where we could utilise waste material to fill the void, offsetting the need for new disposal land for tailings. It resulted in economic benefits, reduction of cycle time, generating employment and above all, environmental utility as industrial waste could find alternative and sustainable use.

Infrastructure, technology and process

We executed this by following the paste back fill system, setting up two paste fill plants each in Sindesar Khurd (SK) and Rampura Agucha (RA) mines and one in the Zawar mine. In fact, HZL is credited with the installation of the first paste fill plant in India. These plants help in thickening the mill tailings, mixing with

the binder to prepare the paste for the underground distribution system. This process avoids any air emissions, and we use recycled water for the activity. The plants in SK have a combined capacity of 6 mtpa, RA at 5 mtpa and Zawar at 1 mtpa.

Employing the latest technology with emergency preparedness plans and digitisation, this initiative dovetails into Vedanta’s policy of ‘Zero Harm, Zero Waste, Zero Discharge’.

Key outcomes

Since deployment, we have achieved up to 39% of tailings utilisation, continual reduction of cement utilisation in the mix and 14% and 37% reduction in specific water consumption in the RA and SK mines, respectively. The capital cost of the plant deployment has been paid back within three months across locations and has resulted in continuous profit contribution.

Way forward

Going forward, we intend to utilise 55% of tailings and maximise fly ash utilisation within the next one year. Focus will be on increased backfilling and safety.

Since 2018, we utilised 7.4 million tonnes of tailings in backfilling to avoid land disposal

 

The world produces ~65 million tonnes of aluminium annually, but nearly 1 million tonne of the material is lost in the form of a by-product, aluminium dross. In India alone, about 60,000 tonnes of dross are produced every year. A classified hazardous waste, unscientific disposal of dross can have detrimental impacts on people and the environment. Currently, aluminium manufacturers send the waste to authorised recyclers who process the waste as per the CPCB guidelines, most of which end up in landfills.

A key aspect of dross is that it contains valuable material and compounds such as aluminium,

aluminium nitrides and oxides, spinel, dimagnesium silicate, gupeiite, and sodium titanate. However, traditional recyclers were only able to recover limited amount of material from cold dross, with about 10% recovery rate being the industry benchmark.

At Vedanta’s facility in Jharsuguda, where India’s largest aluminium smelter is housed, we have turned this around in partnership with Runaya, who are licensed to use Taha’s patented dross technology. This ensures a significantly higher recovery rate, while also creating energy savings to the tune of 800,000 GJ and reducing CO₂ emissions in excess of 260,000 tonnes, annually.

 

C.N. Singh, CEO,

Vedanta Ltd., Jharsuguda

Circularity in business is the need of the hour, and I’m proud of the ‘zero waste, zero discharge smelter’ feat our Jharsuguda team has achieved with Runaya’s support. Furthermore, Runaya has broken the mould in manufacturing with a highly diverse workforce, with nearly 50% women running the facility.

Abhijit Pati, CEO & Director,

BALCO

Vedanta’s ethos of ‘Zero Harm, Zero Waste and Zero Discharge’ continues to guide our environmental and social performance. We at BALCO are aligning our energies to stand tall towards ecosystem restoration and nurturing environment conservation efforts across all our areas of operations.

Annanya Agarwal,

CEO & Co-Founder, Runaya

Runaya is firmly committed to disrupting the linear economy model currently existing in the industry and ushering in a circular economy model by deploying cutting edge technology and innovation in the resources sector with focus on sustainability solutions. We are extremely proud to partner Vedanta Jharsuguda, India’s largest aluminium smelter, on their journey towards becoming a zero hazardous waste smelter.

 

The Vedanta Sustainability Framework and its associated standards and policies guide our work on social performance. In areas with indigenous populations, we are committed to following the principles of Free, Prior, Informed Consent (FPIC). With its genesis in the UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples, it has been adopted as a best practice by the IFC and ICMM.

Our CSR Council, led by a senior business leader, and including CSR Heads and CSR Executives from all business units, meets every month and reviews the performance, spends and outcome of CSR programmes across units. Governed by our in-house CSR Policy and Sustainability Framework, the Council is responsible for governance, synergy and cross-learning across the Group’s CSR efforts.

The Board CSR Committee comprising senior Independent Directors, apart from providing strategic direction for CSR activities, also approves its plans and budgets, and reviews the progress of the initiatives.

SOCIAL PERFORMANCE & SOCIAL LICENCE TO OPERATE

Securing and retaining one’s social licence to operate is an outcome resulting from a company’s ability to garner the trust of the communities where it operates. Social performance frameworks are a good mechanism to measure, manage, and monitor this aspect of the business.

With a view to evaluate Vedanta’s social performance and impact, our senior leadership commissioned a study conducted by independent, globally renowned experts. This study spanned four sites, post which the reports were submitted to the Vedanta ExCo for its consideration. The reports made a clear case for a reboot of our social performance practices.

Based on the findings of the report, a Group-wide self-assessment drive with all units was conducted in FY2021. These led to the formation of Social Performance Steering Committees, with cross functional participation. The primary intent was to explain to our internal stakeholders that social performance and licence to operate go beyond the ambit of an organisation’s CSR activities and are closely related to its operations, HR practices and other activities.

This awareness initiative resulted in the formation of Social Performance Management Committees (SPMC) at each unit, development of standard and guidance note and its implementation through VSAP.

Through proactive and targeted initiatives, we are progressing towards our objective of becoming a developer of choice in our areas of operation.

Following the success of the initiative, we are engaging the third-party consultants again to reinstate the project through the means of pilot to be conducted at two BUs - Lanjigarh and HZL. With the initial formalities complete along with senior management approvals, FY2022 will see these two BUs undertake pilot projects including social risk assessment and grievance mechanism tracking, among others.

Through such proactive and targeted initiatives, we are progressing towards our objective of becoming a developer of choice in our areas of operation.

 

Set up 10 field hospitals with 1,000 critical care beds for COVID patients, across Rajasthan, Delhi/NCR, Chattisgarh, Odisha, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu

Vedanta’s business units have been supporting 1,000 beds for COVID-19 patients across business locations

Cairn Oil & Gas has set up a 100-bed COVID Care Centre in Barmer along with the district administration

Vedanta Aluminium, Jharsuguda & BALCO, Korba have set up COVID Care Centres with a capacity of 100 beds each

Vedanta Sesa Goa has added 100 critical care beds with oxygen and ventilator support at Goa Medical College

 

HZL is supplying 8 tonnes of oxygen to local hospitals, while Sesa Goa is providing 3 tonnes of Liquid Medical Oxygen on a daily basis. ESL has also committed to supplying up to 10 tonnes of oxygen daily

HZL runs an oxygen bottling plant with capacity of up to 500 cylinders per day, and is setting up a 1,200 cylinders per day bottling plant

In order to facilitate on-time oxygen transportation to hospitals in Rajasthan, Cairn Oil & Gas has provided 11 tankers

Sterlite Copper is initiating the operation of its oxygen plant at Tuticorin, with a capacity to produce 1,000 tonnes of oxygen per day

 

Goal: SDG 2 - Zero Hunger

Target: 2.1 - End hunger and ensure access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food, all year round

Target: 2.2 - End all forms of malnutrition

Goal: SDG 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Target: 4.4 - Increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship

Goal: SDG 6 - Clean water & sanitation

Target: 6.6 - Protect and restore water-related eco- systems

Goal: SDG 8 - Economic Growth & Decent work for all

Target: 8.6 - Reduce youth unemployment, illiteracy, unproductivity

 

CASE STUDY

Making inclusive progress an everyday reality

Caste-based discrimination across many parts of India continues to be a deep-rooted social taboo. Take the example of 50-year-old Dinesh Kumar, a resident of Dangiyo ki Dhani, Dewra, Chitalwana, Jalore district. A father of three children, Dinesh has always believed in casteism, until he became a part of Cairn’s Dairy Development & Animal Husbandry initiative.

The DD&AH initiative provides the community with a platform to enhance their income through improved ways of livestock management. The programme includes doorstep delivery of medical care for livestock, regular awareness and capacity-building sessions on cattle upkeep, skill development on allied activities, linkage with

government initiatives and so on. Dinesh was desperate to increase his family income, but he could never convince himself to be a part of the project, because the village dairy committee’s secretary belonged to a scheduled caste.

Cairn, in partnership with SURE Sansthan (non-profit partner of the programme), helped him change his views on casteism. Today, Dinesh is an active member of the committee, and has expanded his business by being a regular supplier of cattle milk to the dairy. Besides, his knowledge on green fodder production, animal

husbandry, and other livelihood allied activities now helps his family earn a decent income. His wife too is a part of the women’s group, doing tailoring activities for additional income.

Dinesh has a progressive worldview today, and his children are receiving decent education. He has many plans for the future, and he knows for sure that Cairn will always support his ambition in letter and spirit.

 

Bringing smile to the last mile

We, at Cairn, think that small outreach initiatives for the community goes a long way towards empowerment at the grassroots. This conviction has inspired us to set up community helpdesks across six villages of our operations across Gujarat. Our role is to conduct a detailed mapping of villages to identify areas where intervention is required and act as a bridge to connect the last-mile citizens like Sadhu Manhulabe Farshurambhai with government schemes and support measures.

Farshurambhai, 65, of Hansalpur village, was finding it difficult to make ends meet after her husband, who was the only breadwinner of the family, died. Her failing health made matters worse for her. The Cairn HelpDesk team provided her with information regarding the benefits of multiple government schemes and how to take advantage of those. Today Manhulaben is a beneficiary of ‘Vidhva Sahay Yojana’ which provides direct cash transfers to the underprivileged.

 

The financial assistance from the government, she says, is a security blanket to fall back on in times of stress. We have so far helped 1,500+ community members across our intervention areas, and this is just the beginning.

 

Proactive leadership

Continuous interaction between leaders and support personnel on safety issues, leading to hands-on safety interventions.

Delegation of safety-critical tasks

Safety-critical responsibilities are identified and delegated with proper monitoring mechanism in place.

Safety engagement with partners

Long-standing business partners are properly informed about safety initiatives undertaken by Vedanta, and project-specific business partners are managed through efficient supervisors.

 

Ensuring health, safety, environment and sustainability continue to be our core focus area. To combat the pandemic-induced health and security concerns of our people, we created a central COVID taskforce with a mix of passionate young leaders and experienced senior leaders. The taskforce is focused on implementing strong control measures across the Group, which includes the launching of Apollo 24*7 healthcare helpline, digital portal for tracking the cases across the Group, wellness webinars and regular communication on precautions and preventive measures with all our people through the Vedanta Cares initiative.

We also introduced the Vedanta Term Life Insurance Policy (providing financial protection equivalent to five times of annual salary) with world-wide coverage of all our executives across the Group. Amid the pandemic, this was the most important initiative launched for our employees. This benefit is over and above the Mediclaim and Group Personal Accident Insurance Policies currently being provided by the Company to support the employees in emergencies.

Our employees also receive consistent recognition from our Management and Board for their extra mile efforts. These include the Chairman Individual Awards, Chairman Awards for COVID-19 efforts, Chairman Award for Business Partner and Best Performing ManCom and Chairman Discretionary Award.

STREAMLINED MANAGEMENT

Management Committee:

Vedanta introduced the concept of Management Committee (ManCom) for the organisation’s apex leadership. Our businesses are now being run by a Group of 6-8 people of the Management Committee comprising the CEO, CFO, CHRO, CCO, CMO and other key leaders. Our ManComs work as a cohesive team and are the top decision-making body for the respective businesses, functions, and the Group, while ExCos (Executive Committee) serve as a review body. Currently, we have one Group ManCom which is the central decision-making body with eight members and ten Business ManComs. The SBUs are still managed by their respective ExCos. The same concept has been extended to functions as well with

13 Functional ManComs in place and each function is divided into verticals with a vertical head identified to ensure accountability and delivery.

Integrated Commercial and Marketing Organisation:

At Vedanta, we continuously assess our organisational structure to ensure right Management in Place (MIP). We redesigned the way we look at our commercial and marketing functions and created an Integrated Commercial and Marketing Organisation under the leadership of the Group Chief Commercial Officer and anchored by the Managing Director Commercial & CEO Aluminium & Power.

We embarked on a series of Commercial & Marketing Workshops to identify 100+ leaders in the largest ever talent identification exercise through a series of structured Vice Chairman’s Internal Growth Workshops. The new team will work with a clear objective of enhanced margin protection, build category expertise, benchmarking and data-driven decision-making, backed by technology and digitisation. The focus will be on buying and selling within the Indian subcontinent to foster national growth.

 

Project organisation design:

We have a large number of high-impact brownfield projects that are being implemented across the Group to significantly drive volume, unlock value and accelerate growth. This is also part of our endeavour to help our nation revive the economy and infrastructure development, capex spending and foreign direct investment (FDI). To drive this

transformational agenda, we have embarked on a series of Project Leadership Workshops to identify the next set of project leaders. These workshops have helped us identify 16 heads of various key projects across the Group, who have taken up enhanced roles to drive our growth vision.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION GO HAND IN HAND

Diversity is a business imperative, as much as it is about fairness and the right thing to do. The Group benefits significantly from the skills, experience, and perspectives of the wide range of people who work with us. Our objective is to achieve gender parity across all levels, starting from our Board to ManComs / ExCos and all decision-making bodies. We constantly review our organisation design and talent mix to ensure a healthy representation of women at all levels in the organisation.

 

At Vedanta, we have put in place a comprehensive, time-bound process to develop a robust Operations, suchasHSE, AO pipeline of women leaders across programme (V-lead) underlines the Group’s strong commitment to diversity and inclusion.

As part of the initiative, a Group of promising young women will be identified, nurtured, and promoted to adopt greater responsibilities in CXO positions

in future, spanning operational and enabling roles at Vedanta’s business units in India and the overseas. The entire programme is likely to be completed between six and 18 months, as the broader objective is to elevate and retain talent.

Our journey commenced with 55 women leaders, out of 1,000 women employees in various business units and functions across 10 businesses and operations. This includes an interesting mix of women leaders from enabling functions such as Commercial, Marketing, Finance, HR, IT, PR/CSR, Legal & Strategy and Operations, such as HSE, AO, Security, and Core Operations. The eligibility criteria comprised the following:

 

a)	Performance and potential

 

b)	Educational background

 

c)	Projects handled

 

d)	Passion for technology

Following their selection, the Vice Chairman had a detailed interaction with these aspiring leaders. These women are being trained to take on higher CXO roles as part of Top 200 leaders in the Group. The idea is to ensure that they represent a part of the decision-making bodies of the Vedanta Group, namely ManCom and ExCo.

A minimum of five women will be given higher roles and responsibilities on a quarterly basis.

This will ensure higher visibility, exposure and fast-track career progression through their enhanced and elevated roles. Anchoring the programme are senior leaders of the Group and each anchor has been assigned five to six women leaders as mentees.

We will continue to implement more such programmes to encourage women to demonstrate their grit and talent and take on larger responsibilities.

 

TRANSFORMATIONAL INITIATIVES

Vice-Chairman’s SBU engagement workshops:

The key idea behind this transformational initiative was to connect with SBU Heads / ExCos to engage, energise and generate ideas / suggestions around key themes such as Management in Place and Business Vision, Volume & Cost, HSE, CSR and Community Relations, People Development, Technology & Digitalisation, Innovation & Benchmarking, Quality, Security & Housekeeping etc. Through this structured initiative, we have covered 16 SBUs and have engaged with 1,200+ executives. The businesses have acknowledged that the Vice Chairman’s Engagement Workshop helped them in: a) moving in the right direction; (b) each SBU has already started working on the key action points which emerged from the engagement; (c) since the workshops happened during the current COVID times, it helped build

employees morale and performance focus; (d) engagement with business partners helped in quality assessment.

Leadership succession planning:

We concluded the largest ever exercise of Leadership Succession Planning. The initiative aims to create a three-level succession slate for the COOs for key businesses in the Group. The objective was to identify 10 COOs and 30 three level successors for each COO through internal job posting (IJP) and handpicking high-quality leaders. This is a continuous process, as we continue to identify successors for other CXO positions such as deputy for CHRO and CFO positions for each business.

360-degree feedback mechanism:

This initiative was launched to get a comprehensive assessment of the organisation’s key leaders. It will help the leaders in identifying strengths and improvement areas for effective leadership and address the improvement areas

through a comprehensive developmental plan. The key leaders from Group ManCom to ManCom and ExCo members of each business will undergo the same leadership development journey.

ONBOARDING TALENT

As part of our overarching initiative to onboard talent through campus hiring from esteemed institutions, we inducted 1,000+ young professionals in India with focus on diversity. We have put special focus to induct talent from the North-East, J&K region and minority communities. As a proactive measure, we have introduced premium salary for rank holders in few categories, and they will be offered front-line decision-making roles. We are also inducting specialised talent from new-age programmes such as digital, data science & analytics, quality, R&D, sustainability, forensics, and so on.

 

We are promoting campus hiring with focus on gender diversity, upliftment of minority communities and adequate representation of all regions and demographics in India.

Vedanta Leadership Development Programme:

Continuing our practice of hiring young talent and developing them to take up higher roles and responsibilities in the organisation, we started the Vedanta Leadership Development Programme (VLDP) for hiring from top IITs and IIMs. Over the preceding four years, we have hired 100+ management trainees from top three IIMs and XLRI and graduate engineer trainees from top six IITs.

Our high-potential talent is provided with high-impact frontline roles. At the end of these workshops, we rotated them into elevated cross-functional roles to provide them with maximum exposure and train them to take up CXO roles at our businesses within the next six-eight years.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

As part of Vedanta’s DNA, we focus on continuous identification and talent development. Over 1,000 leaders were identified through workshops, V-Reach, IJP and Act-Up programmes.

FACOR Leadership ACT UP:

FACOR (Ferro Alloys Corporation Limited) which was recently acquired, comprises of chrome mines along with a fully integrated processing and captive power plant. FACOR is one of the largest producers of ferro alloys, an essential ingredient to produce stainless steel and specialty steel. FACOR has tremendous potential to generate significant value in the

growing market. A 2-day ACT UP (Accelerated Competency Tracking and Up-gradation Programme) Workshop was organised with the objective to identify and elevate the internal talent at FACOR to leadership role in order to strengthen FACOR leadership backbone and impart Vedanta’s culture and values for alignment. A structured process was designed to shortlist participants from a pool of 600+ employees for the 2-day Workshop which comprised Group activities, presentations, and case studies. 50+ new leaders were identified and elevated to significantly higher roles across the three verticals of Captive Power Plant (CPP), FACOR Power Limited (FPL) and Mines. Cross functional teams were formed to foster learning across verticals and solve complex problems. A new CSR vertical was established to stand firm on our values of giving back to the society.

V-Reach: Graduate Development Programme:

We have a strong and unwavering focus on identifying and developing talent from within. We have a 5,000+ strong talent pool who joined us as graduates, who represent the backbone of our businesses. V-Reach was launched in three phases to identify top 500 talent from the graduate talent pool and provide them elevated roles and opportunities for fast-track career growth within the Group. This identified talent will progressively take up enhanced roles for adding fresh perspective and value to various businesses. We are also developing a digital solution to continuously track the progress of this talent through technology implementation as we continue to identify additional set of talent under this category.

Digital Organisation:

Vedanta has embarked on an aspirational digital transformation journey and our vision is to become a technology-driven company.

With this vision, Digital Act-up was conducted to identify young high potential leaders across various units and functions through the structured ACT UP Workshop model and give them significantly elevated roles and responsibilities and thereby induct the required skillset to provide a digital steer to our organisation.

V-Tech 1.0:

To identify talented engineers and elevate them to significantly higher roles, V Tech 1.0 was launched. Over 550 employees spanning the Group with focus on ensuring diversity will undergo online psychometric assessment to result in shortlisting of top 300 basis the assessment and 360 DF. These leaders will drive high-impact projects and innovations, take up leadership roles across the organisation, leverage their potential and become brand ambassadors of Vedanta.

Young Leaders’ Taskforce:

At Vedanta, young leaders are given a wide plethora of growth opportunities. We have created a team of livewire professionals hailing from diverse backgrounds with focus on innovation. Their innovative ideas help us steadily grow volumes, optimise costs and identify other key drivers to make the organisation more agile to protect our margins, despite market variations.

UN SDGs and target linkage

Goal: SDG 5 - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Target: 5.5 - Ensure full and equal participation of women in all decision-making in the political, economic, and public life.

Target 5.9 - Adopt and enforce policies and legislation on gender equality