SOCIAL AND RELATIONSHIP CAPITAL

An important factor in the Bank’s value creation for its stakeholders is to have a meaningful engagement and be responsive to their perspectives. The Bank continuously endeavours to understand the concerns and opinions expressed by stakeholders and respond to them promptly. The Bank holds regular interactions with investors, employees, customers, regulators and engages with communities and banking associations to remain informed.

MATERIALITY ASSESSMENT

To deepen our commitment towards building a responsible and sustainable business, ICICI Bank appointed an external agency to conduct its first materiality assessment exercise to identify key topics that stakeholders believe were relevant for the Bank.

The approach for assessing material issues involved the following steps:

• Identifying the universe of relevant ESG topics that could have a potential impact on the Bank’s sustainability. The sustainability topics were evaluated for consideration at a strategic level and organised into four broad themes: Governance, workplace, environmental management and community engagement.
• A survey in the form of a questionnaire was executed to capture the perspectives of our key external stakeholders including customers, investors, vendors/suppliers, rating agencies, media, and communities. Similarly, internal stakeholders were members from the management and employees. The survey and questionnaire were designed in a way to bring out the key issues, risks and opportunities from the stakeholders’ point of view, which was then mapped to assess the materiality issues for our business.
• The Bank used online surveys to collect data and information from stakeholders to prioritise the list of identified ESG topics.

The Bank has identified the following top 13 material issues:

STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

SOCIAL INITIATIVES OF ICICI BANK

With a purpose-driven approach, the Bank has been playing a role in creating meaningful social impact. The Bank has been undertaking social investments largely through the ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth (ICICI Foundation). In fiscal 2022, the Bank spent about ₹ 2.67 billion towards CSR activities.

Activities of ICICI Foundation

A large part of the efforts of ICICI Foundation are focussed in the rural areas. Over the years, ICICI Foundation has recognised the need to discern locally relevant requirements at the grassroot level and design activities or projects for maximum impact. These projects could range from addressing issues of resource shortages, value chain development for agricultural products, imparting skill training in smart agricultural practices, and others.

Some key activities of ICICI Foundation in fiscal 2022 were as follows:

Water

Availability of water has been identified as a critical gap as water shortage is a significant challenge in many parts of the country. ICICI Foundation undertook several projects to address water challenges. During fiscal 2022, rainwater harvesting projects were implemented across 1,700 rural government schools. Apart from replenishing groundwater in these areas, the objective of implementing the project in rural schools was also to educate school children about rainwater harvesting. The idea is to instil habits from a young age to use water sustainably and mindfully. ICICI Foundation has also carried out watershed projects in regions like Marathwada and Bundelkhand, that are drought prone regions.

Rainwater harvesting project installation at a government school in Shivali village, Latur district, Maharashtra.

Healthcare

Following the Covid-19 pandemic, an important area that drew attention of the Bank and ICICI Foundation was to fortify the health infrastructure of the country. During fiscal 2022, varied efforts were made in this direction. To specifically address the requirements for Covid-19 healthcare, several health equipment like oxygen plant, ambulances, ventilators, hospital beds, and others were provided. ICICI Foundation also supported efforts to build a complete facility for Covid-19 treatment in three states. Going beyond supporting Covid-19 healthcare, ICICI Foundation also supplied medical equipment like dialysis machines and equipment for cancer care that were recognised as areas requiring significant support.

Value Chain Development

As part of value chain development, the principal focus of ICICI Foundation was towards strengthening the agriculture and animal husbandry sectors. This involved setting up food processing units at several locations for processing the surplus production to improve the shelf life of the local produce. Naming few projects in this area included the food processing unit at Udaipur in Rajasthan, oilseed value chain at Keonjhar in Odisha, value-added milk products at Beed in Maharashtra, and jackfruit value chain at Kerala. In the area of animal husbandry, ICICI Foundation has undertaken projects in livestock value chains.

Environmental Sustainability

Apart from rainwater harvesting and watershed projects, ICICI Foundation has worked on promoting use of renewable energy sources. This involved projects like setting up solar power capacity at government schools, rejuvenation of water bodies, waste management and hygiene. ICICI Foundation has also undertaken pilots for ensuring food security under adverse weather conditions in Ladakh. Trench Greenhouse has enabled vegetable cultivation in Ladakh throughout the year. In addition, ICICI Foundation has extensively engaged in tree plantation, and has planted over one million trees till March 31, 2022.

Women beneficiaries at the jackfruit processing unit in Kuzhur village, Thrissur district, Kerala.

Skill Training for Livelihood

ICICI Foundation conducts three flagship programmes for skill training. The ICICI Academy for Skills operates 28 skill training centres in 21 states/union territory. These Academies are providing industry-relevant, job-oriented training on a pro bono basis in technical and non-technical skills. Under the Rural Livelihood programme, ICICI Foundation has worked in over 2,500 villages to impart relevant skills to enable livelihood creation while ensuring sustainable village ecosystems. ICICI Foundation manages two Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) at Udaipur and Jodhpur with 20 satellite centres in Rajasthan. These centres provide skills based on the local market requirements.

The cumulative number of people trained through these three initiatives crossed 750,000 individuals at March 31, 2022. The activities of ICICI Foundation spans across all states in the country.

Beneficiaries of custard apple plantation drive by ICICI RSETI, Udaipur

Rural Development

There are specific segments of the rural economy that require a more supportive and sensitive response to their financial requirements, and the Bank has taken initiatives to address the needs of such segments. The Self-Help Groups (SHGs) programme is an initiative that has contributed to entrepreneurship among women in the rural areas. A comprehensive suite of banking products, including zero-balance savings account and term loans, for meeting the business requirements of the women of these SHGs is provided. Services are offered at their doorstep, thus saving their time and money on visits to the branch. ICICI Bank is also organising financial literacy camps and has set up dedicated service desks at select branches to guide SHGs on banking procedures. There has been a gradual rise in entrepreneurial ventures by women in the areas where the Bank has been providing services to SHGs. In addition to direct efforts in reaching out to SHGs, the Bank has tied up with about 546 non-government organisations called Self-Help Promoting Institutions (SHPIs).

The Bank has provided loans to over nine million women beneficiaries through over 692,000 SHGs till March 31, 2022. Of these, 3.8 million women were ‘first time borrowers’, who had not taken a loan from any formal financial institution. In addition to direct customers, the Bank reaches out to about 1.3 million customers through microfinance institutions.

The Bank also provides lending to Joint Liability Groups (JLGs), which are semi-formal groups from the weaker sections of society. Compared to SHGs, these groups are smaller. Lending to these groups is done through tie-ups with microfinance companies. The Bank also offers credit-related services to microfinance companies that are providing financial services to the rural population

At March 31, 2022, the Bank had over 21.1 million Basic Savings Bank Deposit Accounts (BSBDA), of which around 4.4 million accounts were opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. The Bank encourages and enables these account holders to transact digitally.