.png)
Corporate fighters
5 Companies that stepped up to battle the pandemic
1. Nestlé has stepped up and donated ₹15 crores towards helping the underprivileged in our society with food drives. They have partnered up with many NGOs to faster transfer the food rations to the people who need it. They have also contributed ₹1 crore to Narayana Hrudayalaya Foundation to purchase ventilators for the hospitals of Delhi NCR. Within their company, they have also taken initiatives for the security of their sales force by not only paying their sales incentives in full but also promising a ‘Nestlé Suraksha’ program to cover any employee who is not covered by the Employees’ State Insurance, for 3 months.
2. Oyo – Oyo CEO Ritesh Agarwal has announced that he will forego his salary for the rest of the year and many executives will be undertaking voluntary pay cuts during the pandemic. Oyo has also been a part of Project Stay 1, a joint venture operation where Oyo partnered up with Apollo Hospitals, Lemon tree, Ginger Hotels, Biocon, Zomato, and others, to set up 500 rooms for coronavirus patients to stay in isolation. This project is also financially supported by Hindustan Unilever Ltd., Deutsche Bank, and SBI.
3. Revv – Revv is a start-up firm that provides self-drive cars. They have announced they have set aside 1000 cars which they will provide to doctors and health care workers free of charge. Their service is currently available in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Chennai. But they plan to expand their service and this offer to other cities. They are also a part of The Corona Warriors of Karnataka, a citizen volunteer group to facilitate the distribution of cars to the healthcare workers.
4. Droom – Droom is a start-up firm that has established an online platform for buying and selling automobiles. They also provide many other services related to automobiles. One of their services is the Droom Germ shield, which is a special anti-microbial coating that has shown effectiveness against aerosol-based viruses. They came forward with this product to shield the First responders and sanitized the entire police vehicle fleet of Gurugram free of charge.
5. Zomato – Zomato has launched the Zomato Market which is a grocery delivery service and is currently available in a few states. Zomato also launched the ‘Gold Support Fund’ initiative. This initiative aims to support the millions of restaurant workers in the food and restaurant industry. All Zomato Gold membership funds from April will be transferred to fund this relief. To show their appreciation towards the customers, Zomato has extended the duration of the membership from one year to two.
-By Kaustav Bose
(May 2020)
