As the scourge of novel coronavirus sweeps across India, the Indian Business magnates have risen to the occasion to extend assistance to the government in their fight against the covid-19. Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, Anand Mahindra, the chairman of Mahindra Group and Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal have pledged their support amidst the unprecedented crisis that has triggered widespread lockdowns across many parts of the country.
Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance has announced a slew of measures taken by the conglomerate to shore up India’s battle against the covid-19. Reliance has decided to step up production of 1 lakh masks per day, free fuel to emergency vehicles carrying Covid-19 patients and free meals to the needy ones in several cities to support the livelihood of those affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
In a press release, Reliance announced the measures it has decided to undertake to support the government’s effort in halting the spread of coronavirus and provide a cushion against the economic impact of the crisis. The press release said that the Reliance had deployed the combined strengths of Reliance Foundation, Reliance Retail, Jio, Reliance Life Sciences, Reliance Industries and all the 6 lakh employees of Reliance to fight against the covid-19.
Reliance announces further steps up its support to India’s fight against #Coronavirus #CoronaHaaregaIndiaJeetega @flameoftruth pic.twitter.com/npQTSx5Rtn
— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) March 23, 2020
The Key efforts initiated by Reliance against battling coronavirus include the following:
- Reliance Industries has set up a first dedicated hospital for covid-19 in collaboration with Bruhanmumbai Municipal Corporation(BMC) with a capacity of 100 beds at Seven Hills Hospital, Mumbai for patients who test positive for coronavirus. All beds are equipped with the required infrastructure, biomedical equipment such as ventilators, pacemakers, dialysis machine and patient monitoring devices.
- Sir H. N Reliance Foundation Hospital will be setting up a special quarantine facility to isolate travellers from notified countries and suspected cases identified through contact tracing.
- Reliance Foundation to collaborate with NGOs across the country to provide free meals to people across various cities.
- Reliance has set up a fully functional isolation facility at Lodhivali, Maharashtra and handed it over to the District authorities.
- Reliance Life Science is importing additional kits and equipment for better and effective testing.
- Reliance has announced that it has scaled up its production capacities to churn out 1 lakh masks per day to ensure that there is no shortage of protective equipment in the country.
- RIL has extended initial support of Rs 5 crore to the Maharashtra Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.
- Reliance Jio has teamed up with Microsoft team to build an online platform “Symptoms Checker” that enables users to check their symptoms for coronavirus from their homes and prevent unwarranted pressure on the medical professionals
- Jio Haptik Technologies has powered the Indian government’s new Whatsapp chatbot around the coronavirus outbreak and provide verified information.
- Reliance will provide free fuel to all vehicles used for transporting coronavirus patients for treatment and quarantined people as per the list provided by the government.
- Through Reliance Retail, with their 736 grocery stores across the country, Reliance has assured sufficient supply of daily essentials, breakfast cereals, fruits and vegetables and items of daily necessities so that citizens don’t have to stock up. The stores will also remain open for longer from 7 am to 11 pm.
Anand Mahindra, the chairman of the Mahindra group, cautioned that India might already be in stage 3 of the transmission and urged the government to announce the continuation of lockdown for a few more weeks to blunt the spread of the virus. He also added that he is exploring ways to use his organisation’s manufacturing facilities to make ventilators. Mahindra has also offered resorts under Mahindra Holidays as temporary care facilities for the patients.
In addition, he claimed that his group’s project team stands ready to assist the government and Army to help set up care facilities and that Mahindra Foundation will be setting aside a fund to help the worst-hit tide over the current crisis. Urging his associates to voluntarily make contribution to this fund, Anand said that he will contribute 100 per cent of his salary to the fund and add more over the coming months.
Going by various reports from epidemiologists, it is highly likely that India is already in Stage 3 of transmission.
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) March 22, 2020
—Cases could rise exponentially with millions of casualties, putting a huge strain on medical infrastructure (1/5)
Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal has pledged an amount of Rs 100 crores to fight the pandemic of coronavirus that has hit the nation. Agarwal took to Twitter to make the declaration while raising concerns for the daily wage earners who are amongst the most seriously affected by the contagion’s outbreak in India.
I am committing 100 cr towards fighting the Pandemic. #DeshKiZarooratonKeLiye is a pledge that we undertook & this is the time when our country needs us the most. Many people are facing uncertainty & I’m specially concerned about the daily wage earners, we will do our bit to help pic.twitter.com/EkxOhTrBpR
— Anil Agarwal (@AnilAgarwal_Ved) March 22, 2020
As of now, India has recovered 433 positive cases in COVID19 and 9 people have died till now. States across the country have announced stringent lockdown to curb the further spread of the disease which threatens to overwhelm the nation’s public health system.
