sobha ltd Management discussions

MARKETS AND OPERATING ENVIRONMENT

MACROECONOMIC OVERVIEW

Financial year 2021-22 was a year of recovery from one of the most challenging times in human history post globalization. The Years 2020-21 and 2021-22 saw innumerable lives, jobs and growth prospects lost due to the corona virus induced pandemic; the world lost 4-5 % GDP output and the demand-supply situation remained unstable for most part of the year. Just as the world was trying to come to terms with the shocking and sudden losses, it was further impacted by a more fatal second wave of the pandemic across the globe in 2020-21. However, since then, with rapid vaccination drives and supportive well-coordinated efforts by the major economies and their central banks, we managed to chart the economic recovery rather quickly, and by end of Q2 of 2021-22, it was business as usual in India with the stock markets recording their lifetime high in October-2021.

Indias GDP recovered from a contraction in the previous year, to record a growth of 8.9% for the financial year 2021-22, and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) indicates that the growth trend shall continue through 2022-23. However, needs to be well guarded against global macro shocks. At the beginning of 2022, uncertainty rose again in business environment due to spread of a new Corona virus variant. Omicron threatened another round of global lockdowns, but given the less deadly nature of the variant, an already vaccinated population put up a strong resistance and things normalized within a month. As the world was just grappling with this, Russia declared war against Ukraine in February-2022, adding to geo-political tensions. The invasion that led to major disruption in global supply chains, with commodity prices rising significantly and unexpectedly. This in turn resulted in high inflationary pressures across the globe, forcing central banks to tighten their monetary policies and unwind some of the quantitative easing. It led to trepidation and general risk-off sentiments among market participants. Despite these headwinds, the Indian economic outlook is moderately strong, though RBI has lowered its GDP guidance for 2022-23 from 7.8% at beginning of the year to 7.2%.

The unprecedented business environment has pushed companies to innovate, become more agile and nimble-footed, increase efficiency throughout their value chains and look at multiple changes to align to the new normal of conducting business. Indian companies have responded well and shown strong resilience. The last couple of years, with covid induced lockdowns gave a window to catch a glimpse of how the future may look like. Some trends got expedited like penetration and adoption of e-commerce, mobile payments and consolidation in the real estate sector. Companies took new ways of working and functioning remotely to support their business operations – some did better, some did worse. Many of the new trends adopted will continue and some adoption may get pushed to the future. However, one thing is certain that the Covid period has changed the world and way of doing businesses forever. The Company is overall optimistic going forward. There have been significant improvements in infrastructure and logistics in the country, coupled with the implementation of GST. All these has made it easier for movement of goods and labour. Government policies are aiming at creating more wealth generating opportunities in India and reducing dependency on imports with schemes like PLI, Make in India and the China plus one strategy and efforts to incentivize alternative forms of energy generation. All these seem to be steps in the right direction.

SECTOR OVERVIEW

The Real Estate sector, which contributes about 7% to Indias GDP is expected to grow to a market size of USD 1 trillion by the year 2030 and contribute about 13% to the GDP. It is also the sector generating the second highest employment in India, after Agriculture. Naturally, the sector has always been in focus for the Government. It has been an eventful decade for the sector – starting with NGT issues obstructing many approved and under-construction projects in their tracks, followed by demonetization, implementation of GST and RERA, rising input and compliance costs. As the sector was just recovering, the NBFC crisis led to a severe liquidity squeeze and then finally the COVID-19 pandemic arrived putting a question mark on the overall survival of the sector.

The Indian housing sector has shown extraordinary resilience in the face of such a challenging environment, and has emerged much stronger and maturer. It has opened up tremendous opportunities for larger, more organized players with scale and agility to gain market share from their smaller and unorganized counterparts. Scalability is a very critical parameter in times of sectoral consolidation as the larger players are marking substantial increase in their sales volume and geographical expansion plans. Smaller players continue to face operational and liquidity challenges while large players like SOBHA with brand recognition, known for quality products and in-house manufacturing facilities continue to gain considerable market share.

Despite the setbacks during first quarter of FY 2021-22, the realty sector witnessed a revival in the following 2 quarters, and a majority of the organized companies recorded highest ever sales volumes in the year 2021-22. Other than the fundamental robust demand, this was backed by innovative sales and marketing efforts and continuous improvements and digitization of processes. Adoption of digital marketing, site visits through virtual and augmented reality, regular construction updates to the stakeholders by taking photos using drones are a few of the new trends that have come into the industry which was otherwise dependent on in-person visits and meetings thereby increasing customer engagement and slowly bringing back the element of trust in the sector. Due to above discussed challenges, developers business margins have been squeezed. With high inventory levels in many cities and most developers struggling to keep above water, turned the sector into a buyers market. Only very few developers with strong brand names were able to keep up their margins by passing on the rise in input costs. The Real Estate sector is anticipated to undergo further consolidation. With improved fundamentals backed by robust and steady demand, especially with expedited wealth generation in the IT, manufacturing and start-up sectors, renewed interest in home ownership post-Covid, execution of projects back to pre-Covid levels and companies getting more organized and efficient, outlook is positive. However, further investments may be required in areas of digitization, construction technology and project design to keep up with changing dynamics in todays urban lifestyle which are driving changes in consumer demand. Another critical aspect would be to cut down on the complexity and time taken to get all necessary government approvals for bringing a real estate project to light. That will truly put the real estate sector leaps ahead in terms of agility.

MARKETS OUTLOOK

A. REAL ESTATE

SOBHA is the foremost backward integrated Company in the real estate space. Since inception, we have taken pride in doing things in-house to have absolute control over the quality and timely delivery of products. We continue to be laser focussed on our products above anything else to delight a home buyer and to exceed their expectations has been our constant endeavour, which has given us the recognition and reputation of delivering best quality homes in the market. SOBHA has presence in 10 cities across 6 states. The Company is present in Bangalore, Gurugram (NCR), Chennai, Thrissur, Kochi, Calicut, Coimbatore, Pune, Mysore and GIFT City (Ahmedabad, Gujarat). While the Company is present in major cities in India, it is also constantly exploring new markets like Hyderabad, Noida, Mumbai, Trivandrum. Despite the challenging environment, SOBHA was able to deliver a considerable operational and financial performance during financial year 2021-22. The Company has witnessed a strong performance across regions and all residential segments that it operates in. New launches with differentiated designs, crafted by our in-house Design studio, keeping in view the fast changes in consumer demand is supporting our business growth sustainably. After working from home for 2 years, many companies are starting to recall their employees. However, the mindset of employees has changed forever. Fence sitters now have renewed interest in home owning, putting to rest the Rent vs Buy debate in urban centres for now. Demand is clearly gyrating towards bigger sized units to cater to additional space for specific utilities – like office work, personal Work-out area, Kids room, permanent maids room etc. Identifying the behavioural and cyclical trends emerging ahead of the curve and customizing our product offering to suit these requirements will remain our top priority among all our deliverables.

With SOBHAs unique Self-Reliant model, a strong brand name and unmatched execution capabilities, the Company continues to deliver all its projects on time. The Company currently has ongoing real estate projects aggregating 28.52 million square feet of developable area and 19.69 million square feet of saleable area, and ongoing contractual projects aggregating 3.29 million square feet under various stages of construction.

As on 31^st March, 2022, Company delivered overall 120.08 million square feet of developable area. Since its inception, the Company has completed real estate projects measuring 63.04 million square feet of developable area and 47.63 million square feet of super built-up area.

During the year, the Company has completed construction activities to the extent of 4.07 million square feet of total developable area and 2.79 million square feet of super built-up area.

BANGALORE

Sobha Limited, based out of Bangalore has its sales volume to the tune of 74% (approximate) coming from the Bangalore market. In SOBHA Dream Acres, we have completed wings 18, 19, 20, 37, 38 and 50 with a total developable and saleable area of 0.68 million square feet and 0.59 million square feet respectively. Construction of the project is carried out using Pre-cast technology. The SOBHA Dream Acres project along with other projects across regions continue to be completed and handed over before stipulated timelines.

SOBHA Palm Court with a 0.75 million square feet of developable area close to Bengaluru airport, offers elegant, refined and secluded living surrounded with the luxuries of modern-day pastimes as we have curated top-notch amenities at the clubhouse.

SOBHA Silicon Oasis with a 0.62 million square feet of developable area was delivered on Hosa Road, Bangalore – a very upcoming neighbourhood with lot of demand from the close by IT parks. The project offers spacious apartments with luxurious features.

Presently, the Company has ongoing projects aggregating 15.47 million square feet of total developable area and 11.05 million square feet of super built-up area.

The Company launched the following projects in the financial year 2021-22.

• SOBHA Manhattan Towers, Bangalore, a luxury project measuring total saleable area of 0.88 million square feet.

• SOBHA Brooklyn Towers, Bangalore, under the Development Management model measuring total saleable area of 0.20 million square feet.

GURUGRAM - NCR

SOBHA started its operations in Gurugram-NCR market during the year 2011-12 with the launch of "International City". After experiencing positive feedback for the apartment project, the Company launched ‘Sobha City project in Gurugram. Sobha City is one of the single largest group housing projects in Gurugram. In the SOBHA City, the Company is currently working on 2.92 million square feet of developable area and 2.25 million square feet of super built-up area. In the International City, we are working on 2.54 million square feet of developable area and 1.61 million square feet of super built-up area.

During 2021-22, the Company has completed SOBHA City – Towers A1, B1 and C1, in Gurgaon, NCR and handed over 0.70 million square feet of developable area.

In total, the Company has ongoing projects aggregating 3.15 million square feet of total developable area and 2.04 million square feet of super built-up area, which will be developed and delivered in phases.

CHENNAI

Chennai is known as the automobile capital of India. It is home for the large automobile and auto-ancillary units along with considerable contribution from the IT and ITES sectors. SOBHA Arbor, Chennai is a luxury project measuring a total saleable area of 0.29 million sqft. This was launched in the financial year 2021-22. It is envisioned to be a luxurious residential enclave, featuring the very best in Sobhas Sustainable luxury living segment with a beautiful landscapes around the project, the Arboretum, organic gardens, and plenty of aesthetic green features. SOBHA Winchester has 0.70 million square feet of developable area. It is a luxurious project featuring apartments crafted with remarkable attention to detail and feature ultra-modern amenities. This was delivered in Chennai during 2021-22.

Presently, the Company has 3 ongoing projects, aggregating 1.04 million square feet of total developable area and 0.67 million square feet of super built-up area in Chennai.

CALICUT

SOBHA has been operating in Calicut since 2013-14 with its first project of SOBHA Bela Encosta, a super luxury villa development. We added SOBHA Rio Vista a super luxury living on a beautiful river side. The extra spacious apartments in the lone tower is nestled in a 3.66 acres of elevated land overlooking the river with acres of greenery and open space.

Presently, the Company has 2 ongoing projects that aggregate 0.98 million square feet of total developable area and 0.70 million square feet of super built-up area.

KOCHI

Kochi is referred to as the commercial capital of Kerala. The City is one of the major port cities in the country. It is one of the rapidly growing cities, and home to a number of technology and industrial campuses such as Info Park, Cochin Special Economic Zone and KINFRA Export Promotion Industrial Park, Smart City at Kakkanad and Cyber City. The Company ventured into the Kochi market in 2013-14 with the launch of SOBHA Isle.

Presently, the Company has 2 ongoing projects aggregating 3.95 million square feet of total developable area and 2.58 million square feet of super built-up area in this market.

THRISSUR

SOBHA entered the Thrissur market in 2007-08 with its landmark project SOBHA City, the first Integrated Township in Kerala.

Presently, the Company has 3 ongoing projects, SOBHA Lake Edge, SOBHA Silver Estate and SOBHA Metropolis (Phase 1) aggregating 1.50 million square feet of total developable area and 0.98 million square feet of super built-up area.

COIMBATORE

The Company ventured into the Coimbatore market in the year 1998-99 with the plotted development project of ‘SOBHA Harishree Gardens and launched its first Villa development, SOBHA Emerald in 2008-09. The Company currently has 2 ongoing projects, SOBHA West Hill with 0.16 million square feet of developable area and 0.11 million square feet of super built-up area and SOBHA Verdure with 0.16 million square feet of developable area and 0.11 million square feet of super built-up area.

PUNE

The Company ventured into the Pune market in the year 2007-08 with the project ‘SOBHA Carnation, a Super Luxury multi-storied apartment.

We have one project in progress, SOBHA Nesara with a developable area of 0.94 million square feet and a total saleable area of 0.61 million square feet. The project located near the pristine foothills of NDA Hills, offers wide lush greens as a view, a bounty of birdlife and a healthier lifestyle.

GIFT CITY GUJARAT

Gujarat International Finance-Tec city (GIFT)

– A Global Financial Hub, (GIFT City) is Indias first operational smart city. Founded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is a business district promoted by Government of Gujarat through a Joint-Venture Company. The objective behind the set-up of GIFT city is that it aims to tap into Indias huge potential for proving financial services by offering world-class infrastructure and facilities to leading global financial institutions and companies.

During the year, we have launched SOBHA Avalon at GIFT City, with total saleable area of 0.32 million square feet.

Currently we have 2 ongoing project in the affordable segment - SOBHA Dream Heights with developable area of 0.81 million square feet and super built-up area of 0.52 million square feet and SOBHA Avalon with developable area of 0.42 million square feet and super built-up area of 0.32 million square feet.

SALES PERFORMANCE:

During the year, SOBHA achieved 4.91 million Square Feet of new sales area which is a worthy accomplishment during the tough operational environment. Total value including Joint development share stood at 38,702 million with an average price realization of 7,883 per square feet. SOBHA share of sales value stood at 32,684 million. This shows that customers trust Brand SOBHA as their preferred choice of quality home.

Despite commercial products, SOBHAs prime focus remains on its residential business to generate positive cash flows through speedy delivery and revenue realization and to ensure appropriate investments in the best available opportunities.

B. COMMERCIAL

SOBHA has primarily focused on the residential real estate category since its inception with a sporadic presence in the commercial segment. Although the Company has created some landmark commercial projects like Thrissurs most iconic landmark: the "SOBHA City Mall", the Companys presence in the segment has been relatively limited. Now we have a renewed focus on commercial development with several projects under progress in multiple cities.

As of March 2022, the Company had two commercial malls in this business vertical. First is the ‘Sobha City Mall at Thrissur. It commenced its operations in December-2015. It has a total developable area of 0.44 million square feet with a total leasable area of 0.34 million square feet. The second offering in this vertical is "One SOBHA" mall, Bangalore with a total developable area of 0.38 million square feet and a total leasable area of 0.23 million square feet. The launch of "One SOBHA" mall in Bangalore signifies our entrance in the citys commercial shopping space. Located in the heart of Bangalore, this commercial development will be a host to the topmost brands in Retail, F&B, Entertainment and Fashion industries. The mall is poised to become Bangalores next go to destination for shopping and recreation.

C. CONTRACTUAL

The year 2021-22 was a milestone year for SOBHAs Contracts vertical. Despite the challenges, the Company has competed 3.71 million square feet in the contractual vertical. Overall, the Company has delivered 57.04 million square feet of contractual work and we have 3.29 million square feet of area under execution in 6 cities across India.

While SOBHA values long-standing relationships with a few of our select clients which contribute to the scope of our total work done in this vertical, there is emphasis on diversifying the client base and reducing SOBHAs risk-portfolio. We are actively involved in major contractual projects across India helping us with geographical diversity and following a multi-client approach. Our corporate clients include the LuLu group, Biocon, Dell, Bosch, Syngene, Taj Hotels, HCL, Wipro, Infosys, ITC Hotels, Huawei Technologies, Manipal group and GAR Corporation, etc.

SOBHAs ability and capacity to deliver high quality, custom – designed turnkey projects and the domain knowledge to address the tough challenges have gained a loyal customer base for the contract division. In the contractual vertical, SOBHA has a presence in 27 cities across 14 States. As the Company predominantly operates on a cost plus margin basis, it seeks to expand its contractual operations while preserving its margins.

PROJECTS AND WORK DONE

SOBHA has set a benchmark in the industry with its consistent delivery of residential products with top construction quality and aesthetics. This is achieved on the back of a completely vertically integrated business model with a laser sharp focus on products and customer expectations. Over the years, this has been recognized well and has garnered a lot of customer support. Despite the challenges faced this year, SOBHA has delivered 4.07 million square feet of residential and 3.71 million square feet of contractual projects.

I. OVERALL EXECUTION

Overall SOBHA has completed 120.08 million square feet of developable area since its inception in 1995. The Company has been steady in launching new real estate projects and executing new contractual projects. On-going projects are excluded from the purview of overall execution since, on average, a real estate project takes around 3 to 4 years to complete.

II. COMPLETED PROJECTS

The financial year 2021-22 has witnessed the overall completion of 7.78 million square feet of developable area and 6.50 million square feet of super built-up area in Real Estate and Contractual verticals put together.

A. REAL ESTATE

During the year 2021-22 SOBHA has completed 4.07 million square feet of developable area and 2.79 million square feet of super built-up area.

In SOBHA Dream Acres, we have completed Wing 18, 19, 20, 37, 38 and 50 with a total developable and Saleable area of 0.68 million square feet and 0.59 million square feet respectively. Construction of these project is carried out using Pre-cast technology. Sobha Dream Acres project along with other projects across regions continue to be completed and handed over within stipulated timelines.

SOBHA Palm Court with 0.75 million square feet of developable area close to Bengaluru airport offers elegant, refined and secluded living surrounded with the luxuries of modern-day pastimes as we have curated top-notch amenities at the clubhouse. SOBHA Silicon Oasis with 0.62 million square feet of developable area was delivered in Hosa Road, Bangalore – a very upcoming neighbourhood with a lot of demand from the close by IT parks. The project offers spacious apartments with luxurious features. SOBHA Winchester has 0.70 million square feet of developable area, a luxurious project featuring apartments crafted with remarkable attention to detail and feature ultra-modern amenities was delivered in Chennai.

During the year 2021-22, SOBHA also completed SOBHA City – Tower A1, B1 and C1 in Gurgaon, NCR and handed over 0.70 million square feet of developable area.

Since its inception, the Company has completed real estate projects measuring 63.04 million square feet of developable area and 47.63 million square feet of super built-up area.

B. CONTRACTUAL

During the financial year 2021-22, the Company has completed 3.71 million square feet spread across 4 cities. Since the start of its operations, SOBHA has completed 57.04 million square feet of area for various clients in 27 cities across India. The company has executed over 41.47 million square feet of area for its single and largest client, ‘Infosys.

Note: Others include Durgapur, Greater NOIDA, Salem, Baddi, Indore, Kolkata, Ooty, Calicut and Mumbai.

III. ON-GOING PROJECTS

The Company is currently executing 31.81 million square feet of developable area and 22.98 million square feet of super built-up area in real estate and contractual verticals together.

A. REAL ESTATE

SOBHA currently has on-going real estate projects aggregating 28.52 million square feet of developable area and 19.69 million square feet of super built-up area spread across 10 cities.

B. CONTRACTUAL

SOBHA has on-going contractual projects aggregating 3.29 million square feet spread across 6 cities.

ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH AND SAFETY

Ensuring a healthy and safe work environment involves developing safe, high quality, and environment friendly processes, working practices, and activities that prevent or reduce the risk of harm to the people working in that environment. It also involves complying with environmental regulations such as managing waste or air emissions for reducing the Companys carbon footprint.

At SOBHA, procedures are in place for identifying workplace hazards and reducing accidents and exposure to harmful situations and substances thus providing a safe work environment to its workers. This includes training employees in accident prevention, accident response, emergency preparedness, and use of protective clothing and equipment.

SOBHA is an ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and OHSAS 18001 certified Company for its quality, environment, and safety management systems.

ENVIRONMENT

SOBHA strives to ensure that its construction, development activities, and real estate operations are environmental friendly. The Company complies with all environmental and occupational health and safety laws and regulations such as the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974; amendment 1988 and the rules made thereunder, the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and the Rules and Orders made thereafter; the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986; Environmental Impact Assessment Notification, 2006; and Hazardous Waste (Management, Handling and Transboundary movement) Rules, 2008 and the amendment made thereafter, across all its projects wherever applicable. The Company also focuses on minimizing emissions and increasing the use of renewable resources both in its construction activities and during the operations phase in its manufacturing facilities where all attempts are made to keep the carbon footprint low by following the best industry practices.

The Company has installed a pre-cast unit for its construction activities. Instead of using the conventional block work or bricks for its construction activities, SOBHA uses pre-cast elements which come with many advantages. They are fast to make, consume less labour, lead to minimal wastage, and do not need plastering work. These pre-cast elements use minimum resources while also reducing wastage at the same time.

ENERGY SAVING MEASURES

SOBHA practices energy conservation by installing solar panels for lighting common areas and solar water heaters in all its projects. Some of the highlights in its energy saving measures are:

• The SOBHA Glazing factory provided with 225 kW and the SOBHA Interior factory provided with 750 kW roof top solar power plants as an alternate source of energy.

• At the SOBHA corporate office, 90 per cent of the power is wheeled from the solar power plant.

• Around 2.36 million units of solar power were used across SOBHAs facilities which resulted in saving the carbon footprint by 2,000 tons.

• Use of heat pumps and solar water heaters instead of geysers to reduce power consumption.

RAINWATER HARVESTING

Rainwater harvesting is another effort by the Company for addressing the acute problem of water scarcity. Rainwater harvesting has emerged as one of the most viable options for meeting the water requirements of an increasing population. Rainwater harvesting also helps restore depleted aquifers thus enhancing sustainable water yields in areas surrounding SOBHAs project sites.

Rainwater harvesting is done in two ways: through collection tanks for roof-based runoffs and through recharge tanks with recharge bores/percolation pits for land-based runoffs. Wherever feasible in residential projects, even surface runoff is collected in storage tanks and after treatment the water is used for primary purposes further reducing the demand for external fresh water. Water from the terrace runoffs is treated and re-used thus reducing the need for getting water from external sources or extracting groundwater to meet a projects requirements.

SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTS

SOBHA uses specially designed Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) to treat the waste water generated in its buildings. The treated water is used for secondary activities like flushing toilets, watering the landscape areas, cleaning the common areas, and at construction sites for dust suppression. The STPs help reduce a projects consumption of fresh water in its various activities.

STPs use a hybrid technology – the Activated Sludge Process (ASP) – Extended Aeration System (EAS) or Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR) followed by the Ultra Filtration (UF) technology for enhancing the quality of the final treated sewage. This process conforms with the standards set by the Pollution Control Board.

Acoustic enclosures are being provided for air blowers to mitigate noise pollution that can possibly be caused in the vicinity. Ozonators are being provided at STPs exhaust and fresh air ducts to remove odour and also improve the quality of air for the operators working inside the plant room. Air curtains are also provided at the STPs entrance to prevent the odour from escaping into the open area. The Company has regular educational programmes for its construction workers on the dos and donts of using natural resources. The Company also constructs dedicated STPs for camps where the construction workers stay.

ORGANIC WASTE CONVERTERS

The Company has been successfully using Organic Waste Converters (OWCs) across all its projects in India. It is mandatory to use solid waste management plants during the operational phase of all projects. The integrated solid waste management system operates on the principle of the 4Rs - Reduce, Re-use, Recycle, and Recover.

Waste is segregated at the household level into organic/inorganic waste and collected in separate bins. Organic waste is converted into compost using Organic Waste Converters. The compost is used as organic manure for the landscape and plantations at project sites. Inorganic waste is given to authorized waste recyclers for further processing. Air curtains are provided at the OWC rooms entrances to prevent the odour escaping from the OWC rooms into the open area. Fly catchers are provided to prevent houseflies, insects etc. from entering the OWC rooms. A weighing scale is provided in the OWC rooms to track the quantity of organic waste generated at the project site. Organic waste generated in and around the projects during the construction stages is diverted to nearby piggery farms and the local municipal corporation while the inorganic waste is handed over to authorized waste recyclers. All these efforts help the Company in restoring eco-sanitation wherever it works.

WATER TREATMENT PLANTS (WTP)

For ensuring safe and healthy drinking water, SOBHA provides treated water with Pressure Sand Filters and Reverse Osmosis units in all its projects. The RO treated water is provided at one point in the kitchen for drinking, while water for non-potable domestic purposes is supplied after basic treatment.

LABORATORY FACILITY FOR WATER TESTING

The Company has a functional chemical laboratory and a microbiological laboratory at the SOBHA Academy to analyse water samples for physicochemical and microbiological parameters. This laboratory is managed by qualified personnel and equipped with instruments like the pH meter, DO meter with probe, COD reactor, spectroflex meter, BOD incubator, centrifuge, a water distillation unit, laminar flow, biological incubator, electron microscope, digital colony counter, and autoclave which are essential for ascertaining the quality of the water from physicochemical and microbiological points of view.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Safety is integrated in SOBHAs core processes to help inculcate the values of health and safety among its workforce. The Company strongly believes that Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) are an integral part of our day-to-day activities at the workplace. Continuous efforts are made to raise awareness and understanding about the value of safety and health programmes across the spectrum including the management and workers. A systematic approach at finding and fixing hazards in the workplace form a part of these programmes.

TheEHSmanagementsystematSOBHAiseffective as it is partnered by an effective leadership and owned by every employee of the Company. This shows a demonstrably strong commitment to Health, Safety, and Environment from the top management in implementing industrial best practices and achieving the Companys goal of zero accidents by. The Company has also:

• Revised hard barricades with wingnut design instead of usage of shuttering materials.

• SOP made for all the building shafts including design changes for pan-India projects.

• SOP for Material Hoist Unloading Point.

• H Frame Materials Lifting and Lowering Mechanism Half SRP design.

• Bar Bending Machine Design changed for smaller bars bending purpose.

• Power Tool Angle Grinder guard design modified for critical activities.

• Eye Anchor and Swivel Clamp for Scaffold, revised and retested.

• Heavy Equipment and Machineries statutory Inspections and Implementation.

COVID-19 RISK REDUCTION MANAGEMENT

• CDRRM - Covid 19 Disaster Risk Reduction Management implemented at Projects and workmen colonies pan-India from 2019.

• COVID 19 Abstract pan-India Projects monitoring system on daily basis (total workmen, number of tested, number of positive cases, active cases, and recovered numbers).

• Made 2^nd Vaccination mandatory for entering the site and completed 100% achievement pan-India Projects.

• Implemented a system to monitor the projects and activities on a daily basis through Virtual Audits, Zoom Meetings, and WhatsApp video calls.

NEW PRACTICES AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION

All the safety documents, check lists, and procedures were revised and updated during the lockdown specifically in the following areas:

• QST home page application designed and live in status.

• LOTO (Lockout Tagout) system implemented for all electrical panels, pumps, DG, hoist, and other equipment.

• The safety health tag system implemented for all power tools.

• Earth pits values display and standard board/stickers installed.

ACHIEVEMENTS

FY 2021-22: There were only six accidents with 40 million manhours in pan-India projects. FY 2021-22: SOBHA City Thrissur recognized as Indias first Net Water Positive (Platinum) rating under the Net Zero Water Rating System by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). The project has set a benchmark by meeting 100 per cent of its fresh water requirements through rainwater (artificial lake), while water for landscaping is obtained through STP treated water with no dependence on ground water or any alternate source. Around 20 per cent excess rainwater from the project is given back to nature.