Telenor expresses sustainable plans at National Sustainability Conference

NEW DELHI: At the National Sustainability Convention held in New Delhi, Telenor India reinstated its focus on sustainable growth. The event witnessed participation by eminent leaders from Government of India, Norwegian Embassy, Industry experts and Telenor India leadership team. Telenor believes that sustainability is about maximizing the impact of communication services by creating shared value for society and business.

Speaking on the occasion, Sharad Mehrotra, CEO, Telenor India Communications said, “Sustainability in Telenor is about extending the benefits of mobile communications to masses and ensuring responsible business practices. It is a key element of Telenor’s corporate culture as well as business strategy. We believe that mobile connectivity can help transform the lives of individuals and empowers societies to grow and progress. We are committed in creating a sustainable business and social environment through our innovative, responsible and customer centric services & initiatives by which the society is benefited at large.”

By enabling access to services like affordable voice and internet services, allowing for financial inclusions and access to knowledge, Telenor says that the company has been bringing positive change in people’s lives and creating shared values. There are six focus areas when it comes to sustainability – human rights, enabling services, supply chain, safe internet, anti-corruption, climate and environment.

Telenor has taken forward the financial inclusion agenda of the government, and has launched an industry-first initiative to offer ‘free life insurance cover’ to its customers. With this Telenor has extended the much needed financial security to mass market customers who find it hard to get a security cover for life due to complicated documentation process or reach of insurance companies. The offer has seen over 10 million customers enrolling for the free insurance.

Telenor also supports United Nations Global Goals for sustainable development and has made the promise to connect 200 million customers to internet, opening access to knowledge, opportunities and vital services that will empower their lives. It has a clear conviction of maintaining sustainability focus in everything it does from the start. It also encourages its partners to increase engagement in areas of sustainability, women empowerment and CSR initiatives.

Telenor India has kick-started real time projects which directly impact climate & environment, social responsibility and women empowerment. Through the network modernization project across all its 24000 sites, the company is installing state-of-the-art equipment that are 25-30% more energy efficient. The new network will help Telenor contribute to the Group’s target of reducing the carbon intensity of its global operations with 40% by 2017, compared to the 2008 level. In order to reduce its carbon footprint, Telenor India has also piloted green branding in a few retail stores in select locations instead of flex and PVC which are not environment friendly.

As a socially responsible corporate, Telenor India has also been instrumental in bridging the mobile gender gap through Project Sampark. By way of this project, it is addressing socio-economic causes of eliminating the gender gap in mobile use and aims to increase women’s access and ownership of mobile phones. Through Project Sampark, Telenor has extended the benefits of mobile phones to over 40,000 customers in villages of Aligarh district in Uttar Pradesh. 50% of them are women. The success of the project will now be replicated in other zones of its UP (West) circles.

Taking women empowerment to the next level, Telenor India has employed over 700 women employees across call centers. It has set up all women contact center in Jamshedpur, Solan and Ethakota which offers employment opportunities in the IT sector for financially challenged women from rural areas. These centers are being managed by Tata-BSS. Telenor also operates an outbound call centre from Patna called DIAL centre with similar objectives.

Child Safety being of primal importance for a developed society, Telenor has initiated the Webwise program to protect children from cyber harm. It aims to create awareness on Internet safety for children and familiarize them with habits that can give them a safe online experience. Through the Webwise workshop in schools, over 20,000 students have been educated on safe Internet practices, says the company.