The world is under the perpetual grasp of the deadly tentacles of COVID-19 which has not only affected millions of people worldwide but has also changed the socio-economic fabric of our living. Getting accustomed to the word ‘New Normal’ is not so effortless given the sudden radical quantum change in our lifestyles that the pandemic has brought about. According to Johns Hopkins University, USA, the global death toll has already surpassed the mammoth 957,000 cases, and the total infected cases stand about 30.8 million cases. The governments of various nations are trying to bring about robust changes and schemes of paramount support to its citizens for tackling the pandemic crisis but the situations remain precarious. In this need of the hour, the Corporate world has stepped in to support their countrymen financially with a stalwart approach to cater to the needs of the people who are in a persistent state of privation. Countless companies from across varied sectors are pitching in to assist the government in its untiring fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in India and abroad. From the supplying of sanitisers and masks to fundraising and providing financial assistance to government and its citizens alike, several Indian companies have teamed up in their effort to provide helping hands to the ailing masses in their fight against the virus, which is gradually spreading across the country.
I would just like to quote the example of Diageo India who has pledged to manufacture around 3,00,000 litres of bulk hand sanitisers across some 15 of its manufacturing units throughout the country to assist in coping up with the perpetual demand for sanitisers. It has also committed to donating 5,00,000 litres of Extra Neutral Alcohol (ENA) to the industries manufacturing sanitisers to enable them to reach the production target of two-million units of 250ml bottle sanitisers. Some companies like Vedanta Resources Limited have also made financial assistance of Rs. 100 crores in the fight against the rising pandemic crisis. Apart from such financial assistance companies like Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has set up a dedicated state of art 100 bedded centre at Seven Hills Hospital in collaboration with BMC in Mumbai., Maharashtra. In addition to this Reliance Foundation commits to provide free meals to people across various cities by forming a strong dedicated partnership with NGO’s and also enhance production potential to produce 1,00,000 face masks a day along with abundant PPEs to medical professionals battle the rising health crisis during this pandemic scenario. Mahindra and Mahindra Co. have started working on making ventilators for COVID-19 infected patients. Even software companies are coming forward like Icertis that has collaborated with Pune Municipal Corporation in setting up medical facilities and contributed Rs. 25 lakhs tackled COVID-19 and not just big firms but even smaller companies are actively joining the fight against COVID-19 by distributing masks and providing sanitisers and free meals. Globally leading companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft have also come forward to offer financial assistance in the form of donations or free services to tackle the pandemic crisis. Some foreign Tech-companies like Verizon media has unravelled three new resources for developer and data teams to assist them in efficiently organising and understanding the publicly available COVID -19 data. These resources such as dataset, API, and dashboard helps engineers to not only analyze but also navigate the data obtained from government websites and healthcare organisations such as WHO to provide a better understanding of the raging pandemic by building their coronavirus charts, applications and various simulations to explore the worldwide cases segmenting them by country, state and district levels. This pragmatic and stalwart approach of the corporate world has given a major boost to the fund-strapped governments throughout the world.
