Rebooting Lives
BEST FAR-REACHING CORPORATE CONTRIBUTION FOR A WIDER SOCIAL IMPACT
WINNER: Wipro Ltd, Bengaluru
WHY THEY WON: Wipro helped thousands with food, medicines, safety kits, oxygen and hospital beds during the pandemic
WITH THE PANDEMIC impacting both lives and livelihoods, IT giant Wipro, along with the Azim Premji Foundation (APF), committed an initial Rs 1,125 crore for Covid relief, increasing it to Rs 2,125 crore in May 2021 to expand its work on vaccination. A 1,600-strong APF team, over 55,000 members from nearly 500 civil society groups, local administrations in 27 states and three Union territories, public school teachers and Azim Premji University alumni focused their efforts on providing relief.
“There was an immediate humanitarian need and a longer term healthcare challenge,” says Narayan P.S., global head-sustainability, Wipro. To address the former, Wipro fasttracked approvals to provide food rations, cooked meals, sanitisers and so on. Its Pune campus was converted into a 450-bed Covid hospital. Doctors and trained personnel were recruited in under-served areas. Ambulances were provided in Jaipur, Bengaluru, Bhopal and Yadgir (Karnataka).
Wipro distributed 594 million food packets/ meals to the needy. Cooked meals were planned and supplied within 24 hours for migrants leaving Bengaluru by special trains. Around 13 million ration kits, over 500,000 PPE kits/ N95 masks, over 30,000 oximeters, 750 oxygen cylinders and 2,905 oxygen concentrators have been supplied. “We are working with partners to train thousands to go to the remotest villages to administer Covid vaccines,” says Narayan.