New Delhi, June 04, 2022.

Cairn Oil & Gas’s Badalta Barmer campaign has emerged victorious in the PRCA Asia Pacific Awards 2022 and the 4^thET Kaleido Awards 2022. While the campaign won the ‘Strategic Communications Award’ at the PRCA APAC awards, it won the ‘Silver Award’ under the ‘Energy’ category at the ET Kaleido Awards. The campaign, centered around the company’s prime area of operation in Barmer, Rajasthan, aims to spread the message of the good work that Cairn has been conducting at the grassroots level for encompassing, holistic development. This campaign has, in turn, aided the company further its business vision of doubling crude production for India’s energy security.

Both the awards are regarded as among the most prestigious in the communications fraternity. The PRCA Awards are held annually across the globe and are among the most coveted awards in the field of public relations. The Kaleido Awards, organized annually by ET Brand Equity aims to recognize inspiring work done in public relations and corporate communications.

Receiving the award, Rashika Kaul, Chief Communication Officer, Cairn Oil & Gas, Vedanta Ltdsaid, “We are humbled to receive the recognition fromPRCA and ET Kaleido for our Badalta Barmer campaign. We have been driving the campaign since the last year to convey Cairn’s success story in Barmer – our prime area of operations – across other rural pockets of Rajasthan. The campaign has reached210 villages and gained active participation from~80,000 residents. This has, in turn, helped us reach out to and earn the goodwill of local residents, a prime stakeholder.”

Cairn’s vision of doubling capacities and achieving 50% domestic crude production for India requires tapping into newly acquired areas for drilling. The drilling of oil and gas also requires approvals from local communities residing within the peripheries of proposed operational sites. People in new sites are unaware and often resistant to new industrial activities. For this, a holistic communications campaign titled Badalta Barmer was run to convey the social transformation message that complements Cairn’s activities. Since the campaign was run in isolated pockets, it became necessary to opt for unconventional media avenues that are well-accepted by rural residents and complement their styles of communication. Tailor-made to popular communication tools in Rajasthan, Cairn adopted a multi-pronged approach of creating stakeholder and beneficiary videos, ensuring direct community engagement through street plays, local theatre, and television, along with publicising approved testimonials from those in the government and bureaucracy.

Badalta Barmer is a shining example of Cairn’s dynamic approach of targeting policymakers, communities and public at large through stakeholder management and sensitization. Today, courtesy the campaign, Cairn has earned the reputation of being a robust CSR-driven company that works for the people in its regions of operations. Overall, the Badalta Barmer campaign has helped the company ring fence its operations not only in Barmer, Rajasthan, their main site, but also in other sites and other states.