Corporates gear up to mitigate impact of Covid

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 24

With the Covid-19 outbreak expected to unleash economic ramifications, corporates are gearing up to address and mitigate its impact. Companies such as Ludhiana-based Hero Cycles, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, JK Tyres and GoAir have announced measures to address and mitigate its impact on partners, employees and the community at large.

Hero Cycles today announced it is setting aside Rs 100 crore as a contingency fund. The fund will be put to use as and when required to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 situation on employees, suppliers, customers and communities across India. The organisation has also reached out to the governments in states where it has major facilities — Punjab, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh — to extend any help required by authorities in addressing the crisis.

The company has also set up an Emergency Monitoring Cell headed by Chairman Pankaj M Munjal to monitor the economic repercussions of the pandemic and its impact on the organisational supply chains. “The Emergency Monitoring Cell is overseeing the planning of supply chain resumption as and when the situation normalises, medical support for employees and their families, and support for communities around key manufacturing facilities,” said Pankaj M Munjal, Chairman, HMC, a Hero Motors Company.

Earlier, Punjab-based Trident and Sonalika Group also announced that there will be no deduction in pay or wages of workers during the holidays or slowdown effected to contain the Covid threat.

Further, country’s largest lender State Bank of India has announced to commit 0.25% of its annual profit (FY 2019-20) to fight Covid-19 outbreak situation in India. The fund used to fight Covid pandemic will be spent from CSR funds.

The bank will use this fund for various activities related to Covid-19, mainly to support health care for underprivileged people in cooperation with healthcare professionals and industry. Some of the initiatives will centre around promotion of healthcare, including preventive healthcare and sanitation and disaster management.

Also, in view of the evolving situation around the spread of Covid-19 in communities, Axis Bank has set aside Rs 100 crore to support customers, employees, vendors, government agencies and the community at large towards curbing the spread of coronavirus. Moreover, the bank has decided to waive charges for savings account, current account and pre-paid card customers (wherever applicable) towards online IMPS and ATM financial and non-financial transactions, for the period March 23 to March 31, 2020 (both days inclusive).

Having taken steps for safety and welfare of its employees and their families, the chairman and whole-time directors of JK Tyre have taken a voluntary cut in their salary by 25%. The other senior management personnel have also taken a voluntary reduction in their salary by 15-20%.

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.