NE BUSINESS BUREAU
CHENNAI, APRIL 19
As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative to help India fight COVID-19, Larsen & Toubro business conglomerate into technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing and financial services, plans to further donate COVID-19 diagnostic Kits, PPEs, N95 masks and other medical equipment worth ₹ 40 Crore government agencies, hospitals etc., says a release from the company.
This is over and above the donation of ₹ 150 Crore by the company to the PM-CARES Fund announced on March 30 and ₹ 500 Crore per month for providing support to 160,000 contract labour spread across the country.
Commenting on this development, SN Subrahmanyan, CEO & MD, Larsen & Toubro said: “We are supporting the central and state governments in this critical hour and offering all possible help in India’s fight against COVID19. As a responsible corporate citizen, we are providing the PPEs, diagnostic kits, N95 masks and critical hospital equipment including ventilators that will be helpful in effectively combating the pandemic. This is over and above our help of ₹150 Crore towards PM-CARES Fund and we will be further helping the authorities in making other medical supplies available as well.”
The conglomerate further plans to donate 45,000, Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to various healthcare organisations under State governments of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Telangana. It plans to donate 151,000 N-95 masks to health agencies in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
It has already handed over 100 semi fowler beds with matresses, 2 ventilators, 7 bipap ventilators and 20 multiparameter monitors to Tamil Nadu Health Department-run, The King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research, Chennai. The institute will further receive 8 ventilators from L&T shortly. The company also plans to donate 12 ventilators for state health authorities in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
L&T is sourcing 155 Make-in-India test kits – capable of conducting 15,500 tests – developed by Pune based molecular diagnostic company, Mylab Discovery Solutions to be donated to Central government and state governments. Each kit can conduct 100 tests and is capable of detecting infection in 2.5 hours as opposed to other imported kits that take longer duration.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says testing people with symptoms of the coronavirus lies at the heart of fighting the pandemic. But the world is facing shortage of testing kits and world-over laboratories are managing with short supplies or with lower capacities to detect suspected cases. India is gearing up to deploy more test kits to perform Covid-19 screening and corporate like L&T are also contributing to this cause.
As the daily wage earners are facing problems during the lockdown, L&T has also provided grocery kits to 1,966 families and cooked meals provided to 8,000 people in Mumbai through its NGO partners. Also, the company is providing 2,000 meals per day for 2 weeks to doctors, sanitation workers, stranded families in public hospitals in Chennai. Additionally, 20,000 meals being provided to migrant workers and labourers in the state capital of Tamil Nadu.
The conglomerate has already set aside an outlay of over ₹500 Crore per month to support about 160,000 contract workers by continuing to pay their wages during the ongoing lockdown and providing them with food and basic amenities at labour camps, while maintaining the COVID-19 prevention and containment protocol, the release further said.
