Piramal Group commits INR 25 Crores to COVID-19 relief effort

Mumbai: Piramal Group in its continued commitment towards supporting the nation in its fight against COVID-19 has pledged INR 25 Crores towards the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) set up by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

Piramal Group, through its pharmaceutical business, manufactures and supplies drug products and services that are considered life-sustaining and critical to public health and the healthcare sector. Classified as critical manufacturing during this pandemic, all of its 14 facilities across the globe, remain operational.

Piramal Foundation, the Group’s philanthropic arm that has presence in 25 states across India, provides primary healthcare and nutrition services (Piramal Swasthya), education leadership and women & youth empowerment (Piramal School of Leadership), and access to safe drinking water (Piramal Sarvajal), largely in partnership with state and central governments, through a unique public-private partnership model, to marginalized sections of society.

As per Piramal Foundation, it continues to work in partnership with the government, in the remotest parts of the country as it deploys various measures through its three initiatives, to address the COVID-19 pandemic. In collaboration with public health workers, Piramal Swasthya has set-up Health Helplines in 7 states, that provide health advisory and relief measures to the unserved and underserved communities that do not have access to information, doctors and hospitals. These Helplines receive ~50,000 calls daily, 20% of which are related to COVID-19. The Piramal School of Leadership at Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, has offered its 40,000 sq. ft. training facility, along with other Piramal aided schools, to the district authorities for use as isolation centers. Piramal Sarvajal provides safe drinking water to 700,000 beneficiaries daily, through its 627+ water ATMs that are now enabled with a contactless smartcard technology to mitigate transmission of the Coronavirus.

In his individual capacity, Ajay Piramal, Chairman-Piramal Group, along with other eminent personalities from the Indian Industry, is actively supporting the Maharashtra State Government in its readiness efforts to handle the COVID-19 crisis by channelizing resources behind interventions across effective utilization of existing hospitals, creation of new isolation bed capacity, ensuring availability of critical hospital supplies –medicines & equipment, ensuring availability of ventilators, distribution of essential foods and fuel. These interventions are aimed at ensuring that the State healthcare infrastructure is equipped to handle the scale of the crisis as well as to contain the contagion.