VODAFONE’S E-MAMTA INITIATIVE HELPS REDUCE INFANT MORTALITY IN GUJARAT

Wins Golden Peacock Award 2013

Mumbai, March 12, 2013: Vodafone’s ‘e-Mamta’ initiative, a mother - child tracking

programme, in association with the Govt. of Gujarat, has helped in reducing the infant

mortality rate in the state. The infant mortality rate in the state has reduced by 4 base points

to 44 points compared to 48 points earlier, which is the highest improvement in Gujarat

in more than a decade. Recognising its contribution, ‘e-Mamta’ has been conferred the

Golden Peacock Award for innovative product/service in telecom category. This the second

consecutive Golden Peacock Award for Vodafone, which also won the award last year for

the “Resolve” programme in the Corporate Social Responsibility category.

The high infant mortality rate recorded in many Indian states has been a cause of concern

for the Indian Government and community. For the Gujarat state Rural Health Mission’s

e-Mamta Mother - Child tracking system, Vodafone developed a voice-based closed user

group (CUG) solution and provided 42,000 SIM cards to ASHAs (Accredited Social Health

Activist), Doctors and Health workers. ASHA workers are health-care professionals who

work as a key bridge between the expectant mothers and the medical staff to ensure

timely and pro-active pre-natal and post-natal care is provided at all stages of the delivery

process. They actively engage with the expectant mothers, collect health related data of all

community members in their allocated areas and feed it into a centralised system, which is

programmed to send timely updates to all ASHAs and mothers on their mobile. Thus there is

continued and regular monitoring of health status of mothers and infants.

Commenting on this achievement, Sunil Sood, Chief Operating Officer, Vodafone India said,

“At Vodafone, we understand the need to engage in sustainable practices and consciously
adopting such practices has become a way of life for us. ‘e-Mamta’ has made a significant
difference in rural Gujarat, where distances and lack of medical facilities impede quick
access to capable help for expectant and new mothers, at a time when they need it the
most. It has been extremely satisfying for us to note the visible drop in infant mortality rate
since we first executed the programme. The Golden Peacock Award 2013 is a testimony
of Vodafone’s conscious efforts to contribute towards making a positive difference to lives,
through the use of technology. It is just one of the many unique initiatives Vodafone has
actively started with a view to helping those who are less privileged, either demographically
or economically”.

Since its inception in 2010, the e-Mamta programme has reached more than 20,000 villages

in 26 districts of Gujarat, covering 1,090 primary and 283 community health centres in the

state. The closed group of 42,000 ASHA workers on a daily basis consume approximately 2

lakh minutes within the group and 5 lakh total outgoing minutes. Since its inception, e-Mamta

has seen over 15 crore minutes being used within the closed user group with over 40 crore

minutes of outgoing calling being recorded.

About The Golden Peacock Awards

The Golden Peacock Awards, instituted by Institute of Directors in 1992, are now regarded as holy-
grail of Corporate Excellence worldwide. Today Golden Peacock Awards Secretariat receives over
1,000 entries per year for various National and Global awards, from India and over 25 countries
worldwide. The Golden Peacock Awards Committee is chaired by Justice P.N. Bhagwati, former
Chief Justice of India and acting Chairman, UN Human Rights Committee. The Award applications
are assessed at 3 three levels by independent assessors and finally by a grand Jury. The Global
Awards are finalized by a Jury headed by Dr Ola Ullsten, former Prime Minister of Sweden. The
Award Scheme for Sustainability has been instituted to encourage initiatives in promoting sustainable
development. The aim of Golden Peacock Global Award for Sustainability is to stimulate and help
organisations to rapidly accelerate the pace of stake-holder oriented improvement process. The
preparation for the award helps to inspire and align the entire work force, and management functions
to this end.

About Vodafone India

Vodafone India is a member of the Vodafone Group and commenced operations in 1994 when
its predecessor Hutchison Telecom acquired the cellular license for Mumbai. The company has
operations across the country serving around 147 million customers. Vodafone India has firmly
established a strong position within the Vodafone Group too, making it the largest subscriber base
globally. This journey is a strong testimony of Vodafone’s success in a highly competitive and price
sensitive market.

Vodafone India in its long-term commitment to India has been providing innovative, customer friendly
and reliable products and services by continuously differentiating itself with a strong brand, best
quality network, unique distribution and great customer service. For this contribution, the company
has been receiving several awards and recognition across different segments. The company received
the award for the Value services -Rural Innovation category for its Low Balance Services at the
Telecom Awards by a leading business daily. Vodafone India has also been making significant strides
with its wide retail presence in the country. In the mobile and telecom category, the company won
the ‘Retailer of the Year’ at the Asia Retail Congress 2013 and ‘Best Modern Retailer award’ at the
India Retail Forum 2012. The company has been recognized as one of the ‘Best Employer of Choice’
in telecom sector by ‘Great Places to Work’ and in another survey conducted by Nielsen; Vodafone
India was the only telecom player in the Top 10 ‘Most Exciting Youth Brands’ in India. Vodafone
Business Services has been awarded the “Best Enterprise Service Provider” at the Frost & Sullivan
Awards for two consecutive years in 2011 and 2012. On the technology front, the company has also
won the imp Enterprise & IT Infrastructure Global Excellence Award for its Business Intelligence (BI)
transformation project.

At Vodafone, sustainability is an integral part of the company’s mission and strategy, shaping the
conduct of business every day. Since 2011, in line with its Group philosophy, Vodafone India became
the first telecom operator in India to release an annual Corporate Sustainability Report for India –
Footprints. Vodafone India was awarded the ‘Green Telecom Company of the Year’ at the Telecom
Leadership Awards 2012 by a renowned media group recently and has also been awarded the
prestigious “Golden Peacock Award” for corporate social responsibility for 2012 and for Innovation in

Product/Service in Telecom category for 2013.

Vodafone Group is one of the world's largest mobile communications companies with over 403 million
customers as on December 31, 2012. Vodafone currently has equity interests in over 30 countries
across five continents and more than 40 partner networks worldwide. For more information, please
visit www.vodafone.com.