Amid vaccine crunch, India Inc steps in to inoculate employees
NEW DELHI: Many of India’s largest conglomerates and companies are focusing on vaccinating their employees, largely through partnerships with private health care providers and, in some cases, government vaccination centres.
The list of companies that are doing this includes Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest employer in the IT sector (over 400,000 staff), M&M, Ashok Leyland, and Sundaram Clayton. Many firms are also extending the facility to families of their employees. In most cases, the shots, for both the employees and their families, are free.
In a statement, TCS said it started vaccination camps in a few cities in early May and has now increased the scale. “TCS is setting up over 100 CVCs (COVID Vaccination Centres) across India; this includes CVC’s across TCS offices in 21 cities and CVCs launched with our primary medical partner across 33 cities...,” the company said in a statement.
Another IT firm Accenture, said it is organising vaccinations in Bengaluru and NCR.
In all cases, the employees have to register on government’s Co-win portal, but will not have to schedule appointments -- a process that has become difficult given the crunch in supplies.
Arjun Vaidyanathan, COO of KPMG in India, said the firm has tied up with Ekincare to vaccinate employees in more than 150 centres across the country. “We have already had our vaccination camps in Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Mumbai..,” he said.
Employees are delighted. Mukul Dikshit, senior consultant at EY and his colleague Divya Deora posted pictures of a vaccination camps on Linkedin. Deora said: “Indeed we are building a better working world.”
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Last year, the government mooted a proposal to allow companies in strategically important sectors to negotiate directly with vaccine manufacturers for doses for their staff. An official said that the current system is better as it allows any company to tie up with health care companies.
N V Balachandar, Ashok Leyland’s President, HR & CSR, said camps have been organised for employees and their families and “about 75% of the 45+ age group in the company have been vaccinated so far...”
Mahindra & Mahindra’s spokesperson said “100% of first vaccination has been achieved for all employees above 45 years”. Similarly, TVS Motor Company and Sundaram Clayton Ltd. have vaccinated all employees above 45 years.
Godrej & Boyce will start its drive through the Godrej Memorial Hospital in Mumbai while LafargeHolcim has arranged for the vaccination of all its employees and families.