Reliance one of the biggest donors in India Inc Covid relief response


Reliance one of the biggest donors in India Inc Covid relief response

 Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Reliance Foundation are among the largest donors as India Inc steps up relief efforts in the second wave of Covid hitting India.

RIL set up 1,875 hospital beds for free treatment of Covid patients in Jamnagar and Mumbai. The 100-bed facility at Seven Hills, Mumbai, was India's first dedicated Covid treatment facility set up in April 2020.

In addition, RIL created several quarantine and isolation facilities across Mumbai, Surat, Lodhivali and other sites. RFH set up an exclusive 10-bed dialysis centre at the Hindu Hriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray Trauma Care Hospital, Mumbai.

RIL is producing and supplying 1,000 MT of oxygen free of cost, accounting for nearly 11 per cent of India's medical oxygen needs. Nearly one in 10 ICU patients in India are getting oxygen from Reliance.

RIL also converted facilities at Alok Inds to produce 1 lakh plus affordable PPE kits plus face masks per day to overcome import dependency.

The company has donated Rs 556 crore to PM Cares and other Funds.

Its Mission Anna Seva provided 5.5 crore plus meals -- cooked meals, ready-to-eat food packets, food coupons, dry ration kits -- across 80 districts, 18 states and one UT, and is set to supply additional 2 crore plus meals in May/June 2021.

RIL also distributed 81 lakh plus masks to frontline warriors and communities across 19 states and two UTs. Small multi-lingual booklets were also distributed to create awareness.

Reliance Foundation provided 5.5 lakh plus litres of free fuel to 14,000 plus notified ambulances and vehicles engaged in Covid-19 services across 249 districts in 18 states.

It also operates nine MMUs in Shahdol, Nagothane, Dahanu, Jhajjar and Ghazipur providing medical services.

Several other leading corporates have made significant contributions as part of India Inc's relief response. Wipro and Azim Premji Foundation committed Rs 1,125 crore, converted an IT Facility in Pune into a 450-bed intermediary care Covid Hospital and have given food support to 32 crore so far.

Infosys committed Rs 200 crore, 2.4 million meals to around 1 million people, mostly poor and migrant labour and distributed millions of masks and sanitisers for police, medical professionals, and volunteers.

Cipla committed Rs 25 crore, including Rs 9 crore to PM Cares Fund, supplied essentials, ration kits and meals to migrant workers. They served 1,44,000 meals to migrant workers and 1,32,700 masks, gloves etc distributed to more than 10,000 doctors and thousands of paramedical staff.

Mankind Pharma donated Rs 100 crore to support families of Covid warriors. This is in addition to already donated Rs 130 crore to PM Cares Fund.

Vedanta committed Rs 201 crore, with Rs 101 crore to PM Cares Fund, and remaining for welfare of frontline workers, daily wage earners, and employees of business partners. They launched 'Meals for All' scheme, distributing free meals to lakhs of daily wage workers, while dry ration kits werre given to thousands of daily wage workers, marginalised poor.

Tata Group committed Rs 1,500 crore and free distribution of 3.5 million masks and gloves. JSW Group committed Rs 500 crore to combat coronavirus.

Mahindra Group set up 17 kitchens at all its plants and distributed over 4.2 lakh meals across its plants to migrant labour. The Group started producing face masks, faceshields and aerosol boxes, for the first time, and distributed 4,00,000 faceshields across the country by December 2020.

ITC created a Covid Contigency Fund of Rs 215 crore, Adani Group pledged Rs 100 crore to PM Cares Fund, ONGC committed Rs 300 crore to PM Cares Fund as of April 1, 2020 plus, about Rs 16 crore contributed by its 31,100-strong workforce.

BPCL earmarked Rs 100.10 crore budget for Covid-19 relief efforts, the SBI pledged Rs 100 crore to PM Cares Fund contributed by its employees. In addition, it committed Rs 71 crore for tackling second wave Covid crisis.

ICICI Foundation committed Rs 100 crore to fight Covid-19 pandemic (Rs 80 crore to PM Cares Fund, and Rs 20 crore to state governments, hospitals, and police forces and also distributed 2.13 lakh surgical masks, over 40,000 N95 masks, 20,000 litres of sanitisers, and 16,000 gloves.

L&T donated Rs 150 crore to PM Cares Fund, HDFC Bank donated Rs 150 crore to PM Cares Fund, and Paytm committed a total of Rs 500 crore to PM Cares Fund by paying up to Rs 10 on every transactions made.

Walmart Foundation committed Rs 61 crore to support various NGOs involved in Covidrelief activities. Supplied 6,00,000 N95 masks and Walmart, Flipkart, PhonePe set up on-site vaccination clinics for associates and their households – covering more than two lakh people.

HUL earmarked Rs 100 crore in March 2020 and contributed 1 crore soaps, sanitisers etc to vulnerable communities.

Citigroup committed Rs 200 crore (for next three Fys), and Rs 75 crore for immediate Covid relief like oxygen supplies, protective equipment supplies, and testing equipments etc. Google donated relief fund of Rs 135 crore. Employees too pooled in Rs 3.7 cr for supporting high-risk, marginalised communities.

Source: IANS