Shell India and VisionSpring win global award for #DriveSafeIndia campaign
Dec 11, 2019
The Prince Michael Award Recognizes Outstanding Contributors to Improving Road Safety.
New Delhi – Shell India and VisionSpring today announced that #DriveSafeIndia, a programme to provide screening and eyeglasses to more than 350 thousand Commercial Drivers and Allied Transportation Workers Across India, has been awarded the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award. The award recognises outstanding achievement and innovation world-wide towards improving road safety. The program has already screened the vision of 97,000 people in 40 cities and towns across India.
Nitin Prasad, Chairman, Shell Companies in India, said, “We are honoured and humbled to receive this prestigious award that recognizes the significant progress we have made, and the focus we put on safety each and every day throughout our operations. Almost 75% of road fatalities in India are attributed to driver error. The #DriveSafeIndia program is a step forward in the right direction to create safer drivers across the country. The award does not belong to us alone, it belongs to every single one of the driver and transportation worker who walked into that camp and said ‘yes’ to safety and saving lives. We will continue building on the positive feedback and expand our road safety initiatives to benefit more road users.”
The Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards have recognised outstanding achievement and innovation in the UK and across the world since 1987.
Congratulating the winners, HRH Prince Michael of Kent said: ‘You have been judged by your peers to be amongst a unique group who are committed to improving the safety of those who travel on the world’s roads.’
In the program assessment conducted amongst 385 drivers, 83% drivers in glasses reported ‘no difficulty’ in being able to identify moving objects such as people and animals in low light conditions, an 144% increase from just 34% drivers prior to screening. Further, 85% drivers shared that after getting glasses they had “no difficulty” in judging speed and distance of vehicles coming from the opposite direction, up from only 37% of drivers without glasses which signifies a 130% increase.
“We are truly honoured to receive this award” said Ella Gudwin, VisionSpring CEO. “Sometimes solutions to complicated problems like road safety are sitting, quite literally, right in front of our eyes. In this case, vision screening and eyeglasses are a simple, scalable solution that enables drivers to see hazards on the road. More importantly, we are reaching people who have never had a vision test before. In fact, 67% of participants are acquiring their very first pair of glasses through the program. Now, they can see well to stay safe.”
After getting glasses for the first time in their lives, 76% of the drivers surveyed in the study articulated that driving safely and optimal job performance would be the most important results of their new clear vision. The assessment underscores the need for proactive interventions that effectively increase eyeglasses utilization among drivers in need of vision correction.
Enquiries:
Shell India
Priyanka Dube
Priyanka.dube@shell.com
+91 9910385564
VisisonSpring Shobha Ramani
Shobha.Ramani@VisionSpring.org
+91 9990318556
Edelman India
Shivani Talwar
shivani.talwar@edelman.com
+91 9871521310
Notes to Editors
About Shell in India:
Shell is one of the most diversified international energy company in India with over 8500 employees and presence across upstream, integrated gas, downstream, renewable energy, and deep capabilities in R&D, digitalization and business operations. With a retail presence across six states – Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Assam Shell is expanding its network of fuel stations across the country. It has the entire Lubricants end-to-end value chain in India, from conceptualization and development, to production and distribution. This includes a world class lubricant oil blending plant with a capacity of more than 115 million litres, a distributor network of more than 185 and over 60,000 retailers across the country. The company also fully owns and operates an LNG re-gasification terminal at Hazira. Through its subsidiary, BG Exploration and Production India Limited, Shell holds a 30% interest in, and is joint operator of the Panna - Mukta oil and gas fields. With a focus on digitization and future ready sustainable solutions, the company is nurturing a vibrant ecosystem in India to accelerate energy innovations with Shell E4 for startups, Shell Eco-marathon and investments in new energy companies like Husk Power and Cleantech Solar. Shell also remains committed to making positive contributions to the communities in which it operates through programmes like NXplorers, Access to Energy and Road Safety across India. Follow @shell_India @makethefuture @shell_ecomar to know how it is redefining the energy space.
About VisionSpring:
VisionSpring is the pioneering, international social enterprise accelerating the uptake of affordable eyewear among people who earn less than $4 per day in emerging and frontier markets. Founded in 2001, VisionSpring uncovers latent demand for vision correction; conducts community, workplace and school vision screenings; trains others to do the same; and supplies radically affordable, durable eyeglasses. VisionSpring has delivered more than 5.5 million pairs of eyeglasses, providing vision correction in 43 countries with over 385 NGO, corporate, government and health partners. VisionSpring has been recognized for its innovative work, receiving multiple awards including the Skoll Award; social entrepreneur fellowships from Draper Richards Kaplan, the Aspen Institute, and the Schwab Foundation; and honors from World Bank, Duke University, Fast Company, and Tribeca Film Festival, among others. For more information, see visionspring.org
Cautionary note
The companies in which Royal Dutch Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. In this announcement “Shell”, “Shell group” and “Royal Dutch Shell” are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words “we”, “us” and “our” are also used to refer to Royal Dutch Shell plc and subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These terms are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular entity or entities. ‘‘Subsidiaries’’, “Shell subsidiaries” and “Shell companies” as used in this announcement refer to entities over which Royal Dutch Shell plc either directly or indirectly has control. Entities and unincorporated arrangements over which Shell has joint control are generally referred to as “joint ventures” and “joint operations”, respectively. Entities over which Shell has significant influence but neither control nor joint control are referred to as “associates”. The term “Shell interest” is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect ownership interest held by Shell in an entity or unincorporated joint arrangement, after exclusion of all third-party interest.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements (within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Royal Dutch Shell. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management’s current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Royal Dutch Shell to market risks and statements expressing management’s expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as “aim”, “ambition’, ‘‘anticipate’’, ‘‘believe’’, ‘‘could’’, ‘‘estimate’’, ‘‘expect’’, ‘‘goals’’, ‘‘intend’’, ‘‘may’’, ‘‘objectives’’, ‘‘outlook’’, ‘‘plan’’, ‘‘probably’’, ‘‘project’’, ‘‘risks’’, “schedule”, ‘‘seek’’, ‘‘should’’, ‘‘target’’, ‘‘will’’ and similar terms and phrases. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Royal Dutch Shell and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this announcement including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for Shell’s products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserves estimates; (f) loss of market share and industry competition; (g) environmental and physical risks; (h) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (j) legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including regulatory measures addressing climate change; (k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (l) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; and (m) changes in trading conditions. No assurance is provided that future dividend payments will match or exceed previous dividend payments. All forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional risk factors that may affect future results are contained in Royal Dutch Shell’s 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017 (available at www.shell.com/investor and www.sec.gov ). These risk factors also expressly qualify all forward looking statements contained in this announcement and should be considered by the reader. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this announcement, December 11, 2019. Neither Royal Dutch Shell plc nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement.
We may have used certain terms, such as resources, in this announcement that United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strictly prohibits us from including in our filings with the SEC. U.S. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC website www.sec.gov.