IIFCL, SPMCIL pledge funds to support fight against COVID-19

A host of public and private sector entities, including IIFCL, SPMCIL and Standard Chartered Bank, on Wednesday committed funds for India's fight against the novel coronavirus.

"India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL) has made a contribution of Rs 25 crore to the PM-CARES Fund as its support towards strengthening India's fight against COVID19," the company said in a tweet.

IIFCL has given beyond the CSR fund by finding additional resources from some other heads.

This is a national crisis and the response has to be extraordinary, a senior official of IIFCL said, adding the company has therefore gone beyond its CSR budget.

Another public sector entity under the Finance Ministry, Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd (SPMCIL) has contributed about Rs 2 crore to AIIMS Delhi for procurement of 45 ventilators, the most needed equipment to combat COVID-19.

Two leading financial institution State Bank of India (SBI) and Life Insurance of India (LIC) pledged Rs 100 crore and Rs 105 crore respectively for Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund.

Around 2.5 lakh employees have decided to contribute two days' salary aggregating to about Rs 100 crore will be donated PM-CARES Fund.

Out of the Rs 105 crore, Rs 5 crore has been donated from LIC's Golden Jubilee Fund, the state-owned company said in a statement.

Funds are pouring from the private sector as well with AU Small Finance Bank contributing Rs 5 crore for the relief work.

It includes a contribution of Rs 2 crore to PM-CARES Fund; a contribution of Rs 51 lakh each to Delhi and Maharashtra Chief Minister relief funds and support provided to Rajasthan Government for a testing facility that was established in Bhilwara, one of the worst-hit districts in Rajasthan, the bank said in a statement.

Besides, to combat the challenges posed by COVID-19, AU Bank is contributing over Rs 2 crore through its various CSR initiatives, it said.

Policybazaar Group is supporting National Covid-19 helplines to address public inquiries about coronavirus, and voluntarily offered someof Call Centre employees to the National Health Authority (NHA), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. This is being done on a non-commercial basis.

"The Ministry accepted our offer and agreed to make us the primary call centre for the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand circles. Within 48 hours of receiving the go-ahead from the ministry, we were live with over 200 agents, each of them working remotely on their tabs or smartphones.

"The team worked over the weekend, to ensure adequate training to agents, creating a customized CRM platform and integrating it with the ministry's systems and standard protocols," Policybazaar said in a statement.

Considering the huge call volumes witnessed, the company plans to ramp up capacity to over 400 agents in a week's time, it said.

Standard Chartered Bank also announced its commitment to donate Rs 5 crore to support the fight against COVID-19 virus in India.

Keeping with its philosophy of affecting a real change in the communities and to provide the much-needed impetus in fighting this common threat, the Bank will be working with multiple non-government organisation (NGO) partners to provide relief to the vulnerable communities including the migrant workers, Standard Chartered Bank said in a statement.

This activity will be undertaken across several parts of the country including major cities (Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Baroda) and rural areas (Sundarbans, Jaunpur, Tonk and Marathwada).

Another private sector bank Karur Vysya Bank donated Rs 5 crore to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.