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Tata Group aids a whopping Rs.1,500 crore

Ratan N Tata, Chairman Tata Trusts and Tata Sons have announced a total spent of Rs.1,500 crore to fight the Covid crisis and is one of the biggest corporate donations till date. While Tata Trusts, which holds 66% stake in Tata Sons, has pledged Rs.500 crore to fight the Covid-19 outbreak, Tata Sons have announced an additional Rs.1,000 crore. The funds will steer five measures against the spread of the pandemic by providing personal protective equipment for medical staff engaged in treating corona patients, make respiratory systems available to corona afflicted patients and make testing kits available to cover the maximum number of people for screening and detection of the virus. Plans are afloat to help prepare better facilities for infected individuals while providing training and education to health care workers and the general public. “At this moment, the need of the hour is greater than any other time,” said Ratan N Tata, Chairman Tata Trusts. “In this exceptionally difficult period, I believe that urgent emergency resources need to be deployed to cope with the needs of fighting the Covid 19 crisis, which is one of the toughest challenges the human race will face”, he said.

Premji infuses 1,125 crores against pandemic

Azim Premji led Wipro’s CSR arm the Azim Premji Foundation, Wipro Ltd. and Wipro Enterprises Ltd. have jointly committed a fresh dedicated corpus of Rs.1,125 crore in tackling the Covid pandemic. While Rs.1000 crore has been committed by the Azim Premji Foundation, the balance of the corpus has been split between Wipro Ltd at Rs.100 crore and Wipro Enterprises Ltd., bringing in another Rs.25 crore. The funds will be available across specific geographies, for imparting immediate humanitarian aid and to expand healthcare capacities, which includes containing the virus epidemic and patient management. “These responses will be carefully coordinated with relevant government institutions and would be executed by the Azim Premji Foundation’s 1,600-person team, in collaboration with many of its over 350-strong civil society partners across the country. These efforts will fully leverage the technology expertise, sourcing systems, infrastructure and distribution reach of Wipro,” stated the company. Besides, the Azim Premji-backed startup, Icertis has also donated Rs.25 lakh to Pune’s Covid-19 designated Naidu Hospital which has partnered with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), in assisting healthcare personnel with Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) such as N95 masks, gowns, gloves, hand sanitiser dispensers and viral transport media (VTM) kits, that protects test samples intransit to the lab.

Mylab gets Covid-19 kit approvals

Virologist Minal Dakhave Bhosale, Research and Development Chief of Pune’s Mylab Discovery made history as Mylab became the first Indian firm to get full approval for manufacturing and selling of coronavirus testing kits. The molecular diagnostic firm has transported the first batch of 150 kits to diagnostic labs in Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Goa and Bengaluru within the first week of its approval. Minal headed the team that designed the first made-in-India coronavirus kit ‘Patho Detect’, and said it was done “in record time” of six weeks. This has ensured the possibility of scaling up of ‘testing’ for the Covid-19. “Our kit gives the diagnosis in two and a half hours while the imported testing kits take six-seven hours,” she said. She had begun work on the kit in February but, submitted the kit for evaluation by the National Institute of Virology (NIV) on March 18th, a day before delivering her daughter. “Mylab submitted the proposal to the Indian FDA and the drugs control authority, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) for commercial approval just before Minal was taken to hospital ahead of her C-Section. No wonder, Minal’s achievement has been lauded by many and prominent amongst them being Anand Mahindra, Group Chairman Mahindra & Mahindra.

NMDC drives PSU contribution

Navaratna PSE mining company, NMDC Limited, will contribute Rs.150 crore towards the relief fund (PM-CARES) which makes this donation one of the largest contributions amongst the PSUs. NMDC has rolled out various preventive measures at their headquarters, plants and offices to protect the employees and their families against the spread of the Coronavirus. Its operations across remote parts of India has implemented steps to fight the pandemic at the villages and hamlets adjacent to its facilities and townships. “Novel Coronavirus is one of the biggest challenges that our country has faced and has been unprecedented in its severity. We at NMDC has always been at the forefront in times of need for the country. But the biggest need is at this time is to be united and strengthen the hands of the Government of India. Together we will be able to defeat this pandemic,” said N. Baijendra Kumar, CMD, NMDC.

Mukesh Ambani ramps up anti-Covid measures

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has initiated a slew of aids to fight the pandemic. In addition to committing Rs.500 crore to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES), he has added another Rs.5 crore to the Maharashtra Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. RIL’s multi-crore initiative includes setting up of India’s first Covid-19, 100-bed facility at Seven Hills Hospital in Mumbai. Funded by Reliance Foundation in collaboration with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the hospital is equipped with modern medical facilities like a negative pressure room that helps prevent cross contamination and controls the infection; all beds have been provided with ventilators, pacemakers, dialysis machines, and patient monitoring devices. Reliance Life Sciences proposes to import more test kits. Ambani’s initiatives have also created a fully equipped isolation facility in Lodhivali, Maharashtra offering free meals to people affected by the virus outbreak. RIL has also committed free fuel for all emergency service vehicles used to transport Covid-19 patients while Reliance Retail with 736 stores is proposing to activate home delivery for senior citizens. Reliance Industries will be increasing production of 100,000 face masks daily along with other protective equipment like anti-hazard suits and garments for healthcare workers.

Vedanta Chairman joins the Covid fight

Anil Agarwal, Chairman Vedanta Group has pledged Rs.100 crore in the fight against the pandemic. The mining tycoon tweeted, “#DeshKiZarooratonKeLiye is a pledge that we undertook, and this is the time when our country needs us the most. Vedanta’s contribution will be ploughed into the government’s kitty for combating the pandemic. In a 3-pronged approach the donation will be steered to take care of the livelihood of daily wage earners, employees and contract workers and for preventive health care. The fund is also slated to aid communities across the company’s various plant locations. Agarwal is optimistic that the reduced Chinese imports, will gradually lead to a higher demand for commodities in India. “Overseas, the impact is at least 10-15%, but in India, people are cautious, and demand is high because there will be less imports, so Indian industry will be okay,” he said. “If you look at India, I don’t think there’s anything to slow down as far as commodities are concerned.”

Sudha Murthy aids pandemic fight

Sudha Murty, Chairperson Infosys Foundation has committed Rs.100 crore towards the battle against Covid-19 in a 50:50 ratio. Rs.50 crore of the total corpus has been committed to the PM-CARES Fund while the foundation will be disbursing the remaining fund across areas which involves the expansion of hospitals' capacities for treating Covid +ve patients, providing ventilators, test kits and personal protective equipment (PPE), and also accessibility to food and nutrition for the underprivileged. Infosys Foundation in collaboration with Narayana Health has also launched a 100-room quarantine facility for Covid-19 patients within close proximity of Bengaluru’s Narayana Health City. The facility is aimed at patients who are economically weaker and will accommodate patients, provide regular monitoring by doctors and nurses of Narayana Health City, and essential medication free of cost. “All our efforts will be targeted towards ensuring that the relief material reaches the people who need it the most, whether it is a patient who cannot afford treatment, our healthcare personnel or daily-wage workers whose livelihood has been severely impacted,” said Sudha Murty. “These are unprecedented times that require section of the society to rise up to the challenge,” she said.

L&T, KOTAK, TVS, ASIAN PAINTS ADDS TO PM’S RELIEF

Larsen & Toubro, the engineering and construction giant has pledged a donation of Rs.150 crore to the PM-CARES fund while Kotak Mahindra Bank, along with Managing Direc-tor Uday Kotak has pledged Rs.50 crore to this relief fund. Asian Paints has announced its contribution of Rs.35 crore towards Covid19 Relief Fund. The contribution will be made to the Central as well as other Emergency Relief State funds to combat Covid-19 pandemic. “As a socially responsible company, Asian Paints is committed to providing necessary support towards various relief measures announced by the government to combat Covid-19” said K.B.S. Anand, Managing Director & CEO, Asian Paints Limited. The TVS Motor Company, a reputed manufacturer of two-wheelers and three-wheelers and its Group Companies TVS Credit Services Ltd, Sundaram-Clayton Ltd., have committed to donating Rs.25 crore to the PM-CARES to aid the battle against Covid-19.

TikTok, Ola Founder and Jack Ma support India

TikTok has pledged a donation of medical equipment worth Rs.100 Cr to fight COVID-19 in India in addition to donating some four-lakh hazmat medical protective suits and masks for doctors and frontline health workers in India. TikTok has also donated two lakh masks to the state governments of Delhi and Maharashtra for their local and state-level healthcare workforce. Ola cab services has announced Rs.20 crore corpus under its crowdfunding campaign “Drive the Driver” Fund. The company hopes to raise around Rs.50 crores through the campaign. Bhavish Aggarwal, founder of Ola, has contributed his annual salary to this fund which will aid emergency support and essential supplies to drivers. Ola has also offered 500 cabs to the Karnataka Government for emergency transportation. Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation have pledged to donate vital medical supplies, including face masks and Covid-19 test kits to India and six other nations to help combat the coronavirus pandemic. “Collectively, these seven countries will receive a total of 1.7 million face masks, 1,65,000 test kits, as well as protective clothing and medical equipment such as ventilators and forehead thermometers,” said a company statement.

Khiladi ‘Akshay’ ups the celebrity donation drive

Bollywood’s Akshay Kumar has pledged Rs.25 crore to chip into the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES) fund to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. His personal donation is sizeable in comparison to any of his peers in the film fraternity or amongst other celebrity donors. Hrithik Roshan has contributed Rs.20 lakh to the Maharashtra Government in providing masks and other protective gear for the BMC workers and caretakers. While Sony TV host Kapil Sharma came forward with Rs.50 lakh donation for the relief fund, superstar Rajinikanth was the first celebrity to have come forward by donating Rs.50 lakh to help daily wage workers. Alisters from the Telegu film industry have come forth to donate substantially. Actor Nithiin was among one of the first actors to commit with his donation of Rs.10 lakh each to both the CM relief funds of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana; a donation of Rs.4 crore received from none other than ‘Baahubali’ Prabhas, Pawan Kalyan (Rs.2 crore), Mahesh Babu (Rs.1 crore), Allu Arjun (Rs.1.25 crore), Chiranjeevi (Rs.1 crore), Junior NTR (Rs.75 lakhs) and Ram Charan (Rs.70 lakhs). Taking a cue from Akshay, many Bollywood cine stars have now opened up their heart and coffers for the cause which includes Varun Dhawan (Rs.30 lakhs), Singer Guru Randhawa (Rs.20 lakhs) and TV actor Arjun Bijlani (Rs.5 lakhs) every drop sure builds up an ocean.

ANAND MAHINDRA UNLEASHES MULTI-PRONG STRATEGY

Anand Mahindra, Chairman of the $20.7 billion Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M), proposes to manufacture its indigenously designed ventilators a prototype of the bag valve mask, or the ‘Ambu’ bag, an artificial manual breathing unit, and a self-inflating device to assists Covid patients. The prototype was developed within 48 hours by the company’s engineering teams at their Kandivali (Mumbai) and Igatpuri (Nashik) manufacturing plants and is expected to cost less than Rs.7,500. “This device is an interim lifesaver and the team estimates that it will cost below Rs.7,500.” “We are simultaneously working with an indigenous maker of ICU ventilators on more sophisticated machines costing Rs.5-10 lakh,” tweeted Mahindra. Proposals are to convert the company’s Club Mahindra holiday resorts into temporary hospice and care facilities in tandem with the government and the army. Mahindra has also promised to contribute all of his salary to the Mahindra Foundation created fund for fighting the ‘Corona’ cause. “I will contribute 100% of my salary to it and will add more over the next few months. “I urge all our various businesses to also set aside contributions for those who are the hardest hit in their ecosystem,” he tweeted.

Mankind, TVS, Piramal aid PM CARES

Ramesh Juneja led Mankind Pharma has promised Rs.51 crore ($7 million) toward the PM’s Covid-19 relief fund (PM CARES). The company’s 14,000 workforce have contributed their one-day’s salary to raise a part of this corpus. A manufacturer of a gamut of products ranging from vitamins, antibiotics to condoms, the company will also be donating ventilators, protective gear and medicines. The Piramal Group has pledged Rs.25 crore towards the PM CARES Fund. The monetary commitment comes close on the heels of the company’s deployment of manpower and services in collaboration with the central and state government in addressing the unprecedented challenges created by this crisis, as per a Piramal Group statement. Two-wheeler giant, TVS Motor Company too has pledged Rs.25 crore ($3.3 million) to the Prime Minister’s relief fund. It’s CSR arm the Srinivasan Services Trust has also pledged another Rs.5 crore ($660,000) to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s relief fund. The company has begun manufacturing and supplying one million protective face masks across Tamil Nadu and its factory kitchens have been deployed to supply cooked meals to police personnel healthcare and municipal workforce.

Kumar Mangalam Birla adds to pandemic package

The Aditya Birla Group has donated Rs.400 crore to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund, besides reserving another Rs.100 crore for its in-house corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives for supplying personal protective equipment (PPE) to healthcare workers.

The $48.3 billion Kumar Mangalam Birlaled conglomerate proposes to divide its CSR corpus into Rs.50 crore for relief measures via the FICCI-Aditya Birla CSR Centre for Excellence. The balance Rs.50 crore has been earmarked for supplying one million N95 masks, 2.8 lakh PPE, and ventilators. The Group is manufacturing one million triple-layer surgical masks and one lakh coverall garments with the support of the textile’s ministry. The company has also mobilised community and self-help groups for home production of masks besides a 100-bed dedicated Covid-19 facility at the Seven Hills Hospital in Mumbai, in partnership with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. It has also allocated more than 200 beds for Covid-19 positive patients across Ujjain, Pune, Hazaribagh, Rayagada, Solapur, and Kharach. The company proposes to launch awareness camps across 200 locations including door-to-door campaigns against the virus.

Gautam Adani pledges relief

Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Infrastructure conglomerate Adani Group has committed up to Rs.100 crore via its philanthropic arm, Adani Foundation to fight the Covid-19 battle. The corpus will be ploughed through the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES). Adani tweeted, “Adani Foundation is humbled to contribute Rs.100 crore to the #PMcaresfund in this hour of India’s battle against #COVID19.” Besides, the company also pledged an additional donation of Rs.5 crore to the Gujarat Chief Minister’s Relief Fund and another Rs.1 crore to the Maharashtra Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Adani Foundation has also deployed stitching of over 1.2 lakh masks to be used primarily by the police and health workers and the larger community. Adani tweeted, “Ongoing #COVID19 crisis calls for the entire nation to fight as one collective force. We hope that our contribution to the #PMCaresFund will ably support the govt & the heroes on the frontlines. We’re with you all the way! #GoodnessNeverStops.”

ITC builds Covid-19 contingency fund

Sanjiv Puri, Chairman ITC Ltd. announced that the company has reserved Rs.150 crore contingency fund to aid vulnerable sections of the society against the Covid crisis. The fund will be directed primarily at the neediest sections of society who have been gravely impacted by the pandemic. The fund will be disbursed in concurrence with district authorities in assisting district health and the rural healthcare ecosystem in reaching out to the weakest sections of society. “The resources under this fund will be channelised towards the protection and well-being of the ground forces who are doing commendable work to reach medicines, groceries, other essential goods, sourcing of agri commodities for people across the country during the lockdown, by providing personal protective gear and hygiene products to such frontline warriors,” ITC said in a statement. ITC has been sending food supplies across the country through its “Aashirvaad Box of Hope” and “Sun-feast Box of Happiness”, for those in need. Through its “Nation First Sab Saath Badhein” ideology, ITC has joined hands with three NGOs in building a delivery network for essential food supplies to those who have been harshly impacted by the current lockdown.

Sajjan Jindal adds to PM’s relief kitty

JSW Group, part of the Sajjan Jindal led conglomerate has joined the Rs.100 crore corporate club for extending financial assistance to combat the deadly Covid-19 via the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES). Besides the Rs.100 crore pledged, the company has set aside separate funds for importing ventilators to be supplied to healthcare services nation wide, also COVID-19 testing kits, personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves for health care workers. “Communities in and around the JSW Group facilities will be provided with staples and other essential dietary requirements”, stated the company. Employees of JSW have also pledged to donate one day’s salary to augment the battle in preventing the spread of the virus.