53rd Annual Integrated Report 2023-24
53rd Annual Integrated Report 2023-24
We remain conscious of demonstrating corporate citizenship by empowering communities through education, healthcare, skill building and livelihood opportunities aimed at their overall socio economic upliftment. We believe our success is intricately woven with the prosperity of our communities and remain resolute in operating with a purpose.
Material issues addressed Community Involvement
Sustainable Supply Chain
Customer Relationships
Key risks considered
Reputational Risk
Emerging competition to our existing business
Supplier Dependency
Strategic linkages Sustainable growth
Enhance Margins
SDGs impacted
To remain a responsible corporate entity mindful of its social responsibilities to all stakeholders including consumers, shareholders, employees, local community and society at large.
As a responsible corporate citizen, we ensure that our communities are not left behind in the path to development. With our CSR footprint spanning many states in India, we strive for equitable development for underserved communities. We have established a comprehensive CSR policy that guides our CSR efforts to empower primarily the communities around our plant and offices, along with the urban, rural and tribal communities, based on the outcome of needs assessment. At DNL, we channelise our CSR efforts through the Deepak Group’s CSR arm, the Deepak Foundation, that fulfils our CSR agenda aimed at empowering those at lowest rungs of the socio-economic pyramid.
Education
Healthcare
Skill Building and Livelihoods
R&D
Medical Care Centre Trust (‘Trust’), also known as Kashiba Children Hospital has been devoted towards serving the underprivileged people of Vadodara, Central Gujarat and neighbouring states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. For the past four decades, it has provided medical care to more than 2.5 Million children, either free or at very subsidised rates. The hospital offers several medical facilities including Paediatric Cancer Department, Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Apang Shishu Kendra (Specially-abled children centre), Shri Jalaram Blood Centre – Regional Blood transfusion centre, Cleft lip and palate restoration centre under the ‘Smile Train’ Project.
The Trust approached Deepak Group for support for construction of new Hospital building and repair & renovation of their existing hospital buildings. Deepak Group, through Deepak Phenolics Limited and Deepak Nitrite Limited, has been supporting the Trust in constructing their new hospital building and carrying out repairs and renovations of existing hospital buildings. The construction of new hospital building is nearing completion and is set to be operational in this calendar year. Honouring Deepak Group’s contributions, trustees of the Trust have named their campus as ‘Deepak Medical Centre’. The centre will be equipped with advanced medical facilities and serve as an integrated medical facility for patients from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and other neighbouring states.
The Government of India has been working relentlessly towards elimination of TB since 1962. Under its National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme, the government holds a vision of eradicating Tuberculosis by 2025. Since February 2023, Deepak Phenolics Limited, through Deepak Foundation, initiated a program for Integrated efforts towards TB elimination by 2025, to play a catalytic role in fulfilling government’s TB eradication mission.
It is estimated that around 8.6% of India’s total population resides in tribal areas, which do not have much access to available care services for TB and other diagnostics at nearby health centres. With an objective of improving access to diagnostic care services for patients in tribal locations, major thrust of the initiative is to provide last-mile TB diagnosis facility at doorstep. Thus, the concept of Nidaan Van was devised.
Nidaan Van has been very useful in providing quality diagnostic services underprivileged and hard to reach areas where diagnostic facilities/providers are non-existent, non-functional or inaccessible.
Besides improving accessibility of diagnostic services for underserved tribal and rural communities, the Nidaan Van has also acted as early diagnosis of disease and timely referral of the patients which has resulted in reduced the morbidity & mortality.
The Nidaan Vans offer free diagnostic services including TB Screening through Artificial Intelligence-based Chest X-Ray, Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing (NAAT), Hyperglycaemia screening, HIV Screening, Haemoglobin testing and Eye testing. The diagnosis is followed by referral for the treatment for the identified patients, at nearest Health Care Facilities.
Currently Two Nidaan Vans are operational in five states – Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh (MP), Rajasthan and Maharashtra. In Gujarat, the Nidaan Van was initiated in the districts of Vadodara, Bharuch and Chhota Udepur and later as per demands from different districts, it has been truly mobile for almost any part of the State of Gujarat. In Maharashtra, it is serving districts of Palghar and Roha. In MP, the services of Nidaan Van are available in 22 selected districts.
In view of positive response and demand of Nidaan Van services from various districts, one more Nidaan Van shall be made operational during FY 2024-25.
Project Vivek Vidya is a “conceptualised Mobile Education Service” that supports the children from marginalised communities grappling with low educational outcomes due to inadequate access to quality reading and learning materials. The programme develops their cognitive and non-cognitive skills through strategic educational interventions and blended learning approach, bringing down the school dropout rates. The project propagates the objectives of the National Education Policy-2020 by enhancing holistic learning competencies of children in the age group 6-15yrs, through storytelling, fostering verbal proficiency & listening skills, vocational skill building, parents counselling, etc
At present, the project is being implemented at 4 locations including peri-urban area of Nandesari and rural area of Savli in Vadodara district, Gujarat, Roha tribal area of Raigad district, Maharashtra and sub-urban industrial area of Jeedimetla on the outskirts of Hyderabad, Telangana.
The project also involves training & empowering the local community women to become Vidya Sathis, who assist as education facilitators in the project to educate children within their villages/communities.
This year, the project started the Music-vocal and instrument coaching classes for the children of classes 5th to 8th, familiarising them with musical instruments, nurturing their latent interests, nudging them into the field of music and preparing them to showcase their talent through public performance.
Samaj Suraksha Sankul is a residential cum support childcare institution, formed with public-private partnership between Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of Gujarat and Deepak Foundation. The Sankul provides comprehensive support to the children with disability and special needs as well as the destitute children in and around Vadodara and equips them with education, adequate healthcare, rehabilitation, extracurricular and independent living skills, thereby enabling them to lead empowered lives.
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We are supporting the Deepak Foundation in Nandesari Education Project, which has been initiated to provide effective remedial classes for the secondary school students in Mathematics, Science and English. The project aims to provide conceptual understanding of the subjects through innovative education techniques, which will also remove the fear of these subject from the students’ minds.
The other objectives of the project are bringing back dropouts into the mainstream, tracking of students and their learning status, facilitating formal and non-formal education modes, counselling to parents, career counselling sessions by expert educators and motivational speakers, facilitating sports education, vocational trainings and youth awareness programmes.
Deepak Group supporting project Sangaath at Vadodara and Chhota Udepur district of Gujarat and Palghar, Pune and Raigad district in Maharashtra. The project facilitates the convergence under various social welfare schemes of the government to enhance their utilisation. We supported the eligible beneficiaries in the application process and successful submission in respective government departments.
Traditional cooking methods used by tribal women in Mokhada had huge reliance on wood as the cooking fuel. This not only poses serious health risks due to smoke inhalation but also degrades the environment through deforestation. Deepak Foundation’s Sangaath Mokhada team is empowering these tribal households by providing innovative clean energy-based cooking solutions and free LPG connections, concurrently as Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) extends this support to families living in rural areas.
Implementation
Under the PMUY, eligible households receive:
Project Surabhi (Integrated Animal Healthcare Centre)
We have instituted a robust grievance redressal mechanism that enables our customers to raise their concerns, make themselves heard and seek effective resolution within the stipulated time. We ensure that the customer feedback is incorporated to make our products and services better.
Forging strong ties with our suppliers is extremely vital for us to ensure a steady supply of raw materials to ensure uninterrupted business operations. We are committed to engaging with them to foster sustainable supply chain operations.
Deepak Group’s Sustainable Procurement Policy guides the SCM operations by placing supply chain integrity at the core while emphasising on environmental & social aspects right from the sourcing of raw materials/services to product disposal/deliveries.
The Company aims to be recognised as a “Global Strategic Partner of Choice” by fostering collaboration with an extensive global network of suppliers. We prioritise compliance with legal and regulatory standards, ethical conduct, diverse supplier engagement and environmental sustainability, to carry sustainable supply chain operations.
We have established Supplier Code of Conduct, clearly outlining the principles of conduct for sustainability parameters that our suppliers are strictly expected to adhere with.
We have laid down a systematic process for identification, assessment and management of the supplier-related risks. Our risks assessment framework factors financial stability, geographic location, statutory compliance, product quality, sustainability and supply chain resilience. Our approach to proactive assessment of risks and its mitigation involves mapping of demand-supply situation, assessment of market repute of the suppliers and interacting with them regularly. We evaluate the impact of assessed risks periodically and develop new vendors to expand our supplier base and rule out dependencies on monopolistic suppliers, as a part of our risk mitigation strategy. Our Supply Chain Management team regularly conducts risk assessment.
Our supply chain operations are bound by our Sustainable Procurement Policy and practices that promote ESG compliance across the supply chain. The suppliers are evaluated based on their performance on various ESG parameters such as environment, health & safety policies, compliance on labour laws, disciplinary practices and other social and governance aspects. We have a comprehensive vendor assessment questionnaire encompassing major aspects of business, ethical conduct and ESG.
