Reliance is committed to ensuring a robust, reliable, and responsive governance mechanism that provides strategic direction to the Company, strengthens corporate citizenship, and provides an enabling framework for managing relevant environmental and social issues. The Company’s corporate governance is guided by the principles of accountability, integrity, and transparency.
Reliance is cognisant of the importance of leadership commitment, Board oversight, and smooth coordination between the Board and the management in achieving set objectives and providing exemplary leadership. The Company is adopting several enforcement mechanisms comprising of enabling policy frameworks, implementation guidelines, and concise and clear procedures to ensure good corporate governance.
Board Governance
The Board comprising of 13 Directors acts as a coordinating body between stakeholders and the Company’s management team. The Board’s primary responsibilities include providing strategic direction to the Company, reviewing performance against set parameters, providing oversight and vigil mechanisms, and imparting corporate leadership.
The Company believes that a diverse Board brings a wide variety of perspectives and offers critical and innovative approaches to making strategic choices. In line with this philosophy, the Company has ensured Board diversity in terms of academic background, expertise, skills, gender, and nationality. The Company encourages the active involvement of all Directors, irrespective of gender, in the Board’s functions. Women Directors on the Reliance Board actively steward the Company’s progress through their participation in critical decision-making processes. They are also part of Board committees that oversee Stakeholder Relationship Management and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) aspects.
The Company understands the importance of independent oversight of its functioning. To strengthen independent scrutiny, the Board currently comprises seven independent Directors (53.8% of the Board). Independent directors are selected through a rigorous process prescribed by the Board’s Human Resources, Nomination, and Remuneration Committee. The process also includes stringent due diligence to ensure the complete independence of the respective Directors. For further details regarding Board Composition, Committees, skills and competencies of Directors, and evaluation, please refer to the Corporate Governance Section of this Report.
Board Oversight on ESG
Responsible management of ESG aspects is crucial to ensure sustained competitive advantage and reinforce industry leadership. Reliance has always endeavoured to manage material ESG aspects in a transparent and accountable manner. Various Board Committees, such as the Audit Committee, Corporate Social Responsibility and Governance Committee, Stakeholders Relationship Committee, and Risk Management Committee, have been entrusted with oversight of respective ESG aspects related to the operations of the Company.
To consolidate its efforts on ESG and strengthen oversight, the Company has instituted a dedicated Board Committee on ESG. The Committee comprises of three Executive Directors and one Independent Director and is responsible for furthering the Company’s ESG proposition.
Terms of Reference of the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Committee
Policies and Codes
Policies and codes are the critical components of the Company’s Corporate Governance Framework and ensure the successful translation of its commitments into actions. Reliance has adopted appropriate policies and codes to achieve its intended business objectives led by the highest standards of business ethics and corporate values. The Company communicates relevant policies transparently to its stakeholders. Detailed policies can be accessed at https://www.ril.com/ investorrelations/downloads.aspx. The Company policies are also disclosed as part of the ‘Section B: Management and Process Disclosure’ section of the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) as required by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.