Jio

Jio funds Reliance Foundation’s WomenConnect Challenge India, which provides grants to non-profit organisations that facilitate access to – and use of – digital technology for women.

No evidence was found of the company having leading practices in this area.

Jio discloses oversight of cybersecurity in the company. The company has a privacy policy which ensures safety of data providers.

Jio continues to support the Indian start-up community through its accelerator JioGenNext.

Apart from its support for digital inclusivity of women and girls through the Reliance Foundation, little evidence was found that Jio supports making digital technologies widely available, affordable and accessible. There is an opportunity for the company to support initiatives in this area. Additionally, the company can consider disclosing information about how the economic value it generates is distributed among its stakeholders.

Jio has an opportunity to demonstrate its efforts in supporting digital skills development and school connectivity.

Even though there is evidence that Jio’s information security management system is certified by internationally recognised standards, it can provide a public copy of this certificate. The company can also step up efforts towards data protection and child online safety.

Apart from its support for the tech innovation ecosystem through its start-up accelerator JioGenNext, limited evidence was found on Jio’s support for open, sustainable, inclusive and ethical innovation. The company can disclose how many of it women employees are engaged in technical roles. Furthermore, the company can disclose how it applies ethics in its research and development (R&D) activities.

While Jio has a publicly available statement committing to respect human rights, it does not commit to respecting all the labour fundamentals outlined by the ILO core labour rights, including freedom of association and collective bargaining for both its employees and its business relationships. Furthermore, the company does not disclose a process to identify, assess and act on salient human rights risks in its own operations and in its business relationships. Jio does have a grievance mechanism to raise human rights concerns and complaints, but it is unclear if it is accessible to all stakeholders rather than just the company’s own workers.

Jio publicly commits to respecting worker health and safety, and it places health and safety expectations on its business relationships and monitors their performance. However, the company lacks sufficient disclosure in reference to collective bargaining, working hours and living wages. For example, while the company discloses the proportion of non-supervisory permanent employees covered by collective bargaining agreements, it does not disclose this figure for its entire workforce.

Jio does not disclose a global tax strategy, or its income tax payments for all its individual tax jurisdictions. The company does not state that it does not make political contributions and does not disclose its lobbying expenditures. Moreover, it does not disclose its overarching approach to lobbying and political engagement in a public policy statement. However, Jio does have a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its business relationship contracts.