Contribution and support towards the fight against COVID-19 are pouring in, either towards the PM-CARES Fund, the respective State Governments, and Corporates and NGOs doing their part in reaching out to the neediest across the country. As we fight this pandemic together as a nation, we also need to appreciate the efforts everyone is doing, in whichever capacity they can. Here are some of them.
Helo
Helo has partnered with NGO Give India and Action Aid to launch #MainBhiCOVIDWarrior campaign. The initiative’s key focus is to provide support to 20,000 families of daily wagers, with a month-long supply of essential food and sanitisation kits. Helo has donated INR 5 crore towards this effort.
Helo also collaborated with Jjust music and Cape of Good Film for a music video titled ‘Muskurayega India’. The song features actors like Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Kriti Sanon, Kartik Aaryan, Taapsee Pannu, Kiara Advani, Ananya Pandey, Shikhar Dhawan and more, who have come together to lift the spirits of people in this tough times of the COVID19 pandemic. The song has been launched and is composed by Vishal Mishra.
With an objective to further support COVID relief efforts for the larger community, Helo has contributed INR 2 crore as part of these initiatives to the PM CARES Fund and Maharashtra’s CM Fund. As part of Helo’s #MainbhiCOVIDWarrior campaign, Shipa Shetty and popular creators on Helo, aim to encourage people to also come forward and contribute to the Give India initiative so that more such vulnerable families can be provided with basic supplies for a period of a month.
As a responsible platform, Helo continues to provide credible information with a dedicated page – #FightAgainstCoronavirus created by the platform to facilitate timely updates in 14 languages, from credible sources like World Health Organization, Indian Health Ministry etc. By using Helo’s live streaming, the Honourable Chief Ministers of Kerala, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh have been sharing necessary information and around key government initiatives to fight COVID-19.
GEECL
The world has been badly impacted by the pandemic COVID-19. India too is reeling under its impact across its length and breadth with the number of infected cases increasing by the hour.
Currently, with the breakout of the COVID-19, a large chunk of underprivileged have been left helpless and in dire need of food.
Given the situation in Asansol and its adjoining areas, GEECL has reached out to social welfare organisations by extending financial support to feed and provide medical assistance to the needy including the migrant labourers who have been stranded due to the lockdown.
Keeping the prevailing COVID-19 situation in mind, GEECL has also pledged to funds to make functional a health centre, belonging to the Health & Family Welfare Department of the Government of West Bengal at Marichkota in Asansol.
ZEE Entertainment
Media & Entertainment Powerhouse – ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ZEE intensifying its fight against COVID-19, today committed to offering financial relief to over 5000 daily wage earners, working directly or indirectly for the Company in its overall production ecosystem. Gauging the unprecedented impact caused to all daily wage earners due to the lockdown, as a responsible player in the media and entertainment sector, ZEE has taken this step ensuring that the families of daily wage earners do not get impacted during the ongoing challenging phase.
In order to further support the Prime Ministers’ Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund), ZEE will leverage the strength of its media network across the nation and the world at large, encouraging over 1.3 billion people to contribute. Over and above this step, ZEE has also provided an opportunity to all of its 3500 employees to offer voluntary contributions towards PM-CARES Fund through an intranet portal. The Company will match the corpus collected from the employee contribution and the collective amount will be donated to PM-CARES Fund.
Speaking on this announcement, Punit Goenka, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, ZEE said, “We stand committed to financially support all the daily wage earners working in our production ecosystem. We firmly believe in the extraordinary power of coming together and fighting against a situation. In these challenging times, it is extremely critical for India Inc. to come together and support the national level initiative undertaken by our Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri. Narendra Modi. Apart from the financial support, we will also contribute in creating nationwide awareness about the noble initiative. Leveraging our strong reach across the nation and the world at large, we are urging our esteemed viewers to join this movement. This is a time where the entire nation needs to come together as one family.”
The collective strength of all consumer touchpoints of the Company, including its television channels, digital platforms and social media platforms will be leveraged to urge people across the globe to join this movement. As a Company which has always been obsessed about its consumers, in order to keep them informed and sensitised about the safety and precautionary measures, ZEE had implemented a first of its kind initiative, titled as #BreakTheCoronaOutbreak.
Under this initiative, content across 40+ channels was paused for a 30-second break throughout the day, encouraging viewers to wash their hands. In line with the decision undertaken by Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), television channel Zee Anmol was also made available free of cost to all viewers across all DTH platforms and cable TV networks for a period of two months.
On the Company’s digital side, ZEE5 ensured that the internet bandwidth across the Country was optimised by replacing High Definition (HD) content to Standard Definition (SD) content. ZEE5 also ensured that the viewers remained calm and composed during the lockdown phase with its #BeCalmBeEntertained initiative.
As a responsible media and entertainment player, ZEE has taken all the steps needed in intensifying its fight against COVID-19, with a key focus on supporting the daily wage earners and in keeping its viewers well informed and entertained.
CMS Info Systems
Unprecedented times call for extraordinary measures. The 21-day lockdown underway across India due to the dreaded coronavirus outbreak has led to citizens grappling with accessing several services. CMS Info Systems, India’s largest cash and payments solutions company is offering ‘Cash2home’, an innovative and free doorstep cash delivery service to help senior citizens and disabled get cash safely at home without needing to step out.
CMS’ ‘Cash2home’ is aligned with the Reserve Bank of India’s vision of offering doorstep banking to the elderly and senior citizens that was articulated late last year and recently reiterated in a circular on March 31, 2020. Given the timing of the lockdown and the salary and pension period as well as Govt’s DBT payments, this service can be immensely helpful in a critical period.
Commenting on this initiative, Rajiv Kaul, CEO and Executive Vice Chairman, CMS Info Systems, said, “It’s imperative that vulnerable sections in our society are protected in these times and we felt an urgent need to create this service. Our goal is to ensure safe availability of cash during any crisis. All of us are concerned about the wellbeing of our families, especially our parents and older relatives. Access to essential goods and services for them is our collective responsibility. Having access to cash is an important psychological safety net. We are able to provide this service with the strong support of our 20,000 employees and associates, who have rallied together in 24 hours to help us launch this service. We are adding more and more banking partners to make this service available to as many citizens as possible soon.”
To avail of ‘Cash2home’, customers can access the list of all partner banks on https://www.cms.com/. CMS is initially rolling out the service across 50 locations in all key states, which will soon be expanded to over 125 locations all over India. CMS is being supported by DISTA India, an AI enabled location intelligence platform, to deliver this service efficiently.
CMS expects up to five lakh citizens may be able to avail this service and with an average transaction size of INR 10,000, the total amount which could be disbursed through this, could be to the tune of INR 500 Crores.
Adda52
In times when the entire country is facing tough challenges in its fight against Coronavirus, Adda52 organises the AOPS (Online poker series) Warm Up event to raise funds for the poor and the underprivileged. This special event will offer 30 Lakhs in guaranteed prize money and will be a part of the April Edition AOPS series offering Rs Seven Crore guaranteed prize money. AOPS tournaments are live from April 2 to 12 on the country’s largest poker website. The amount collected from the warm-up events will be donated to the COVID-19 Helpcare in the PM Relief Fund. Last week, Adda52.com concluded a special tournament – Falcon, which began from March 27 up till April 1. The total amount of 2.5 lakhs collected during the tournament will be donated.
AOPS April edition is bigger and better with an opportunity to win through the 60 tournaments organised this time with special emphasis on the AOPS Warm-Up event. The event will run along with the other events. While the poker enthusiasts are stuck at home, they can look forward to enjoying online poker and at the same time contribute to the amount that Adda52 will donate to the COVID-19 Relief Fund. The number of expected participants in the tournament is likely to increase due to the ongoing lockdown.
Speaking about the major objective of organising this event, Naveen Goyal, CEO of Adda52.com said, “It is a time in the country when we as a responsible organisation must make whatever efforts possible to help those affected by this pandemic. The April edition of AOPS has been planned in a way that everyone sitting back home can make the most of their time and engage in this sport while contributing to a humanitarian cause. We are a poker giant, and in order to help those in need, we are organising tournaments with the primary objective of donating the revenue earned to the government’s COVID-19 Relief Fund so that it can reach the needy swiftly.”
Talking about the overall tournament, it is enthralling as the biggest highlight of the series will be the AOPS Main Event with 2 Crore guaranteed prize money. This is just the icing on the cake. Additionally, AOPS Main Event Winner will get Rs 50 Lakh guaranteed prize, and to make the series more interesting, Adda52 has included various tournament formats like the PKO – Progressive Knockout, DST – Deep Stack Turbo, WTB – Win the Button, PLO – Pot Limit Omaha, 6-Max Holdem, HighRollers.
With continued efforts of organisations across the country, Team Adda52.com believes that we can fight this virus together and restore life back to normalcy. Also, the Adda52 team requests all the citizens to stay indoors and take it upon themselves to save them and their country from this fatal disease.
Young Chess Players Raised Funds by Hosting an Online Chess Tournament
In probably the first initiative of its kind, young and upcoming chess players from across the country devised a unique way to promote their sport, as well as raise money for the PM-CARES fund simultaneously.
One International Grandmaster, seven International masters, many National Chess Champions, chess players and enthusiasts, have come together and hosted an online chess tournament under the aegis of “The Chesster Group” which was held on April 7, 2020.
Thrown open to chess enthusiasts across the country, there was no participation fee. However, participants were requested to donate to the PM-CARES fund which is raising money to combat the COVID 2019 pandemic, send a screenshot of it to the organisers and play on.
The tournament received an enthusiastic response from chess players across the country (Mumbai, Noida, Nagpur, Hyderabad, etc) and has seen interest and donations coming in from the Immortal Chess Forum (a Global Chess Forum) amongst others. The tournament was hosted on www.Lichess.org (a global not-for-profit chess platform created to promote chess).
More than 80 people across chess players and enthusiasts have contributed Rs 105,000/- to the cause.
Speaking on the occasion, Vedant Panesar, 16 years, U-17 National Chess Champion, 2018, Adarsh Tripathi and Yash Srivastava, 14 and 17 years, international-rated chess players, the organisers who ideated this, said, “We hoped to raise as much as possible and contribute in our small way to our Prime Minister’s cause. It has been gratifying that well-wishers across the globe helped us in our endeavour.”
Over 80 people participated in the tournament and IM Ravi Teja from Hyderabad, Telangana, won the tournament. Prizes were given to around 20 players, which was contributed from the pocket money of the teenage organisers.
World Help Group
World Help Group’s initiative called Project Thali is a fundraising campaign to provide cooked food or packets of dry ration to the poor across cities in India, who are the most affected by the lockdown.
World Help Group is a group of volunteers who have come together and delivering food and rations across India. Project Thali started about 11 days back and they have managed to serve 84,500 people over 5,000 pin codes covered. Project Thali comprises of over 1300 volunteers and has administered funds to the tune of 42 lakhs.
Project Thali raises funds through which it has built a network of volunteers who raise fund to procure rations and supply it to people who can make food packets from them. The project also comprises of a network of volunteers who are able to deliver the food packets to the poor.
Apart from Project Thali, they have two more programmes underway. They are:
- Helpline Number – One nation, one number to dial for any kind of support or help
- Ekk vyaki ek parivaar – Adopting one family for 15 days and fulfil their hunger needs
Nimith Agrawal one of the founders of the World Help Group, says, “In regular times, it still works if organisations and NGO work in silos, but in times of calamity, all organisations need to come together and work together to create impact. This impact is then not limited by place or people. World Help Group is a technology platform to connect the dots between volunteers, NGO’s and government for being in sync and create a larger impact. Our catalysts are our network of over 1300 volunteers, state governments like Government of Assam which is helping 10 lac people across the State with ration and essentials and the support of 100+ IAS, IPS, IRS and other civil servants. These programmes will continue well post the COVID-19 situation and it will work boundary-less to help people in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).”
All of you can support World Health Group the following ways:
- Volunteer food thalis
- Help in the distribution of collected food
- Donate money from Rs.500 onwards that’s the price of one-week food.
- Help Procure Raw Material
UniOne Foundation
UniOne Foundation, formed with an intent, ‘United for a Good Cause’, run by wives of Executives of Union Bank of India, donated an amount of Rs.2.50 lacs (Rupees Two Lacs Fifty Thousand only) to PM Cares Fund as a contribution for the fight against COVID-19. The Foundation has always been at the forefront in carrying out social activities pertaining to the upliftment of the needy and poor. “In fact, this is our way of extending a helping hand towards a calamity of this magnitude, ” said Sathyavathi Rai, President, UniOne Foundation.
Poddar Foundation
All the leading economic indicators are reeling under financial stress, which is seen as implications of the pandemic COVID-19. The uncertainty on recovery owing to pandemic has engulfed all citizen’s minds across the globe with fear and anxiety, affecting the mental health of the senior citizens but also millennials and youths.
With an aim to improve the mental wellbeing quotient of the nation, Poddar Foundation, a 37-year-old foundation in association with Rotary Club, has launched a universal helpline number 1800-121-0980 to combat mental illness during COVID-19. The idea is to create an ecosystem where one equips himself/herself to successfully deal with an unfriendly situation. More than 500 volunteers are available to help and address issues related to anxiety and stress for everyone in need. 200 of these are trained to actively take calls and helping people cope in these uncertain times.
In the era of social distancing, these volunteers are fully trained via zoom calls, mock-calls and video training. Since the country has diversity in languages, these volunteers are fluent in multiple languages like English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Konkani, and Punjabi to help the masses in need. The volunteers are available from 8 am to 8 pm. This helpline is being used by the Goa Government as their official helpline number. It is also being used by NSDC and World Peace University.
Prakriti Poddar, Managing Trustee of Poddar Foundation, believes in educating and spreading awareness on the unrecognised threats of mental health imbalances. Commenting on the initiative, she said, “The idea is to introduce a helpline that can help people across States in India and abroad. We realised that mental health was not considered an important aspect for many in the country. The vision was to create a platform that can be of help to the people during this pandemic. Due to the nationwide lockdown, people are unable to do their daily activities and keep themselves busy. There is a lot of insecurity related to their jobs, the industry is getting impacted, people are unable to plan their savings due to the uncertainty of their salaries, etc. With a team of volunteers, specialised experts, we aim to bridge the treatment gap that India faces today. It couldn’t be complete without the help of the Rotary Club, Hinduja Hospital, Masina Hospital, RoundGlass, and other foundations and organisations. The security of mental health and wellbeing has to be a collective endeavour much larger than a single individual’s need. Together we aim to spur a mentally fit, emotionally healthy and physically productive India.”
Shri. VK Gautam, Addl. Chief Secretary, Maharashtra State, Human Rights Commission said, “The Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission, understands the importance of mental health, however, in times like these, it is even more a concern; it usually gets left behind as we continue to combat relief on the ground through the distribution of grains, medicines etc.”
The Wellbeing Volunteers United, an initiative of Poddar Foundation and a collective of the Rotary district 3141, and Rotary Club of Bombay, with other like-minded people powering this, has over 400 Volunteers, ready to answer calls and uplift the spirit of our citizens.
Canon India
Pledging its support towards India’s fight against COVID-19, Canon India, one of the leaders in the imaging space, today announced a plethora of initiatives to empower the people of its adopted villages and SOS village homes. To ensure that the community members are fully equipped, safe and motivated to win the COVID-19 battle, the company is providing essential food and sanitation items across the villages.
As a part of the support, Canon India is providing 3000 food packets in its adopted villages. The food packets include essential ration items such as rice (5 kg), flour (5 kg), pulses (1 kg), salt (1 kg), sugar (1 kg) and cooking oil (1 kg). More than 12,000 people including the daily wagers and Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in the villages are expected to be benefited from the concerted efforts of the company. Canon India’s NGO partner – Humana People to People is supporting in the procurement of food packets, packaging and distribution within the villages. In addition to this, to provide sanitation support to children of SOS Children’s Villages of Faridabad and Hyderabad, Canon India is distributing essential items such as sanitizers, liquid soap, cotton masks and other home cleaning products. Through this, the organisation aims to support 500 children in these SOS villages for a period of one month, covering the 21 days lockdown period as well.
Speaking about this endeavour of Canon India, Kazutada Kobayashi, President & CEO of Canon India said, “With the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire world is going through challenging times indeed. In such an unprecedented and crucial situation, it is pertinent that we stand strong and show the best of humanity to combat this battle. With ‘Kyosei’ at the heart of our CSR operations, it has been our consistent endeavour to work together as one family and empower the less privileged ones. At Canon, we consider our adopted villages and SOS Village Family homes as our extended families. Hence, re-enforcing the commitment towards our adopted communities, we want to ensure their well-being and equip them to fight through these difficult times. Furthermore, it was also delighting to see Canon India employees come forward and contribute their bit towards the PM CARES fund, supporting the government’s relief efforts. Keeping our spirits high, Canon India family will make all efforts to bring a positive difference and emerge as winners in this fight against the pandemic.”
Reaffirming its philosophy of ‘Kyosei’ which embodies the spirit of ‘living and working together for the common good’, all the Canon employees Pan India are enthusiastically coming together and contributing to the PM-CARES Fund as well.
As a way forward, the organisation aims to continue supporting and safeguarding the communities in these villages in the times to come as well by supplying essential commodities.