Management Approach

Reliance’s intellectual capital fuels the spirit to innovate and commit towards building of self-reliant India by improving the accessibility of masses to innovative products and services. A team of 1,000+ in-house scientists, engineers and specialists are committed to developing world-class products and services that deliver value responsibly to customers and stakeholders.

Innovation and Technology

During the year, RIL O2C actively pursued its Intellectual Property (IP) goals, submitting 46 new patent applications and receiving approval for 92 patents. As on March 31, 2024, RIL was granted 1,125 patents.

Internally, Reliance has established a robust IP governance framework to expand and manage its patent portfolio effectively, aligning with the organisation’s strategic business objectives.

Circular Economy

Reliance elevated its commitment to circularity and consumer integration by scaling the chemical recycling technology to create specialised green products. This allows the Company to tap into high-value, high-potential customer segments in new value chains, reinforcing its commitment to sustainable, customer-centric solutions. Some of the key initiatives promoting circular economy include converting waste plastic pyrolysis oil to circular polymer, recycling waste plastic to make value-added products, recycling of waste tyres and polyester recycling.

Converting waste plastic pyrolysis oil (Py oil) to circular polymer: Reliance has embarked on an ambitious project to produce circular polymer from waste plastic Py oil at the Jamnagar DTA refinery. A total of 200 T waste plastic Py oil has been processed in FY 2023-24. The Company’s Jamnagar refinery is the first in India to receive the ISCC-Plus-certification. Reliance has successfully shipped its inaugural batch of ISCC-Plus-certified circular polymers, named CircuRepol™ (polypropylene) and CircuRelene™ (polyethylene).

Bio Innovations

Committed to harnessing the power of bio-based technologies, Reliance is integrating biological sciences, synthetic biology and biomanufacturing expertise to pursue sustainable and transformative solutions for a brighter tomorrow. Some of the key bio-innovations that the Company is focusing on are:

Value added product from algal bio-refinery: Reliance’s algal manufacturing expertise has been leveraged to develop a sustainable food alternate which will help in addressing the UN SDG of Zero Hunger. The Company has commissioned a pilot plant with a capacity of 50 TPA to produce alternate algal protein and other value-added products. FSSAI approval has been obtained for algal protein. Other value-added algal products include (i) feed ingredient with unique nutritional properties for improving animal health, (ii) nanocellulose, a novel biomaterial intended for wound care and personal care products and (iii) algal oil for personal care application.

Iron enrichment of vegan protein: Reliance is scaling up the process for producing bio-available vegan iron (R BAGI) and preparing to establish regulatory readiness aimed at iron-deficient anaemia, thus promoting health and well-being.

High-strength biomaterial spider silk protein: Spider silk, a biopolymer with excellent mechanical properties and biocompatibility, exhibits potential in personal care applications, particularly in preventing hair fall and promoting overall health and well-being.

Bioderived biodegradable plastics: Reliance is developing a scalable technology aimed at commercialising 100% bio-based, biodegradable and compostable PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoates) bioplastics.

Affordable and Clean Energy

Reliance’s pursuit of affordable and clean energy is crucial in addressing the global challenges of climate change. During the year, the R&D team continued to focus on efforts such as Bio-CBM, Reliance Catalytic Hydrothermal Liquefaction and catalytic gasification of Biomass to Hydrogen (B2H). Additionally, Reliance has developed an in-house levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH) model and is developing a process design package for large-scale green H2 production. The Company is also developing a dynamic simulation model for hydrogen compression and H2 retail stations. Reliance is also developing electrolyser membrane and purification catalysts.

Biomass gasifier: Reliance is developing concepts for biomass gasifiers to generate producer gas. This method allows the Company to use biomass at central and remote locations to supply piped producer gas to heaters located at widespread locations instead of conventional fuel.

Climate Change

Reliance is addressing climate change through innovative technologies and strategic initiatives such as co-gasification of biomass, development of Polybutylene Adipate Terephthalate (PBAT) based bio-compostable bag-on-roll for packaging, development of sulphur-based fertiliser and development of technology for CO₂ utilisation in construction materials.

Digital Services

In pursuit of developing innovative product and services at affordable prices, Jio has filed 1,687 patents till date, including 1,255 patents in FY 2023-24 alone. Jio Platforms and its subsidiaries were granted 144 patents in FY 2023-24, taking the cumulative count of patents granted till March 31, 2024 to 331. These patents span across domains including 6G, 5G, AI-LLM, AI-Deep Learning, Big Data, Devices, IoT and NB-IoT. Jio has successfully delivered this by leveraging India’s local talent, forging partnerships with global industry leaders and building the ecosystem to support India’s technological renaissance.

Democratising digital services

Jio’s vision is to make digital services accessible to all. During the year, Jio launched the ‘JioBharat’ phone, the lowest priced, made-in-India internet-enabled phone with affordable and competitive monthly service plans. In pursuit of its mission to make AI accessible for everyone, everywhere, Jio launched the ‘Jio Brain’ in early 2024. Jio Brain is the world’s first 5G integrated, industry-agnostic, machine learning (ML) platform that lets any enterprise institutionalise ML in day-to-day operations.

Co-creating innovative solutions

Jio has focused on collaborating with global digital leaders, to bring advanced products and services closer to Indian consumers. During the year, Jio partnered with Plume® to offer market-leading smart home and small business services to subscribers across India. It also partnered with SES, a global satellite content connectivity provider, for cutting-edge medium earth orbit satellite technology.

Ecosystem approach to innovation

Jio is spearheading India’s digital revolution by creating essential infrastructure that unlocks widespread digital innovation. During the year, Jio and TM Forum inaugurated the first TM Forum Innovation Hub in Mumbai for accelerating the development of Generative AI and Large Language Model, along with Open Digital Architecture. Jio, in collaboration with NVIDIA, is planning to build a state-of-the-art cloud-based AI compute infrastructure to accelerate India’s position as a growing force in AI.

Data Privacy and Cybersecurity

Reliance businesses follow the privacy-by-design and privacy-by-default approaches to ensure that personal data is processed ethically, securely, and legally. Reliance’s cybersecurity strategy is aligned with business and marked to threat. A defence-in-depth approach is followed where multiple technology solutions and controls are deployed to improve resilience against diverse and evolving threats. Our O2C business is ISO 27001 certified, RBML is ISO 27001 as well as PCI DSS certified, and Retail is ISO 27001, ISO 27701 as well as PCI DSS certified. The Digital business’s technology operations are ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO 27701 certified.