National, 19 December 2022: IRM India Affiliate has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with UltraTech Cement Limited. IRM is the world’s leading professional body for ERM qualifications across 140+ countries and UltraTech is the largest manufacturer of grey cement and ready-mix concrete (RMC) in India. Both organisations will work towards enhancing ERM and risk intelligence in the Indian cement sector.
Additionally, Mr. Atul Daga, Executive Director and CFO of UltraTech, has joined IRM India Affiliate’s Strategic Advisory Board, to further guide the institute’s strategy and vision through his experience and guidance.
The collaboration is part of IRM India Affiliate’s long-term vision of building risk resilience and a robust ecosystem of risk-intelligent organisations across sectors. As a part of this knowledge partnership, both IRM India Affiliate and UltraTech Cement will be organising webinars, roundtables, industry meetings, and thought leadership articles towards knowledge building for the sector.
The Indian cement industry ranked second in the world after China in terms of production and consumption, is considered to be one of the most environmentally sentient industries with the lowest carbon footprint. As per a Reserve Bank of India bulletin, India's cement industry has made “remarkable progress” by reducing CO2 emissions by 36 per cent between 1996 and 2017, moving from 1.12 tonnes/t to 0.719 tonnes/t between these years.
In the next 20 years, over 250 million people are expected to shift to urban areas of India. This will create a huge demand for cement production, likely resulting in a rise in input, and in process creating requirements for mitigation strategies to avoid risks associated with the industry like environmental, sustainability, health, natural resources, and cybersecurity. The role of ERM will be crucial to ensure achievement of these objectives.
Elaborating on the collaboration, Hersh Shah, CEO, IRM India Affiliate, said:
“UltraTech Cement has well defined ERM and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) processes in line with international standards and has also institutionalised sustainability across its value chain future proofing its business.
Our association with UltraTech Cement will set the stage for enhancing risk culture in the building materials sector through sharing of best risk practices across platforms.”
Speaking about the association, Atul Daga, Executive Director and CFO, UltraTech Cement said:
“Risk management is key to build a sustainable business. UltraTech has developed comprehensive risk management framework and integrated ESG into its ERM process.
We are delighted to partner with the Institute of Risk Management to further strengthen our enterprise risk management process and build a risk awareness culture for the industry. We look forward to this association being a mutually enriching one.”
