Apart from their usual CSR activities, automobile firms in India are lending a helping hand and monetary resources.
Bangalore: BMW Group India stepped up once again to battle COVID19 in India after Toyota Kirloskar Motor announced relief measures for its employees by providing easy access to healthcare.
With the previous funding, the BMW India Foundation created an Isolation Ward and a PCR Lab at the Chengalpattu Government Hospital, in Tamil Nadu. The Foundation has also worked with the Gurugram District Health Administration, aiding in sample collection and vaccination programs by providing logistical support.
“These companies have a huge amount of money in reserve which they mostly use for allocating such funds. These activities help them maintain a healthy work relationship with the employees and motivates them to work harder,” said Dr. Janaki Ram, faculty at Canara Bank School of Management.
A fortnight ago, the Honda India Foundation, the CSR arm of Honda India, set up isolation centers and oxygen production plants as part of the initiative in Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat.
Amit Kumar, a worker at Oxygen on Wheel, an initiative by the Mahindra Group said, “We are providing four containers in Delhi every day. The service is through the government and not privately. We have been active for a month, and we receive calls for support from other states like Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, and Punjab. We’ll provide logistics according to the government’s demand.”
Maruti Suzuki less than a month ago announced the funding of two oxygen production plants in Delhi NCR, dubbed Airox Nigen Equipments and SAM Gas Projects. Mohammed Afsar, director of the SAM Gas Projects said, “The production has increased by almost 50 percent due to the materials and monetary resources donated by Maruti Suzuki. The production has drastically increased in the last one week.”
In April, Ford India donated five million surgical masks, one lakh N95 masks, and fifty thousand gowns to India through Ford Fund Foundation.
Abhay Dange, Director of Press and Corporate Affairs, BMW Group India said, “Broadly we are running the BMW Foundation under our group(?) that looks after the CSR activities of all the BMW business in India including Mini, Mosaic, and BMW Financial Services. Apart from this, there are internal programs like the employee welfare program. These funds are allocated to governmental as well as non-government organizations in Delhi and Chennai”
“The CSR programs run independently from the COVID19 allocations. In light of COVID19, we still are under a global process to evolve our CSR activities to provide aid and we’ll come up with a plan by 2022”, he added.
Ambulance services, oxygen concentrators, 24*7 hotline for the employees, distribution of masks and sanitizers are some of the services these firms have provided to their employees across the country through NGOs and initiatives.
