Indian business tycoon and chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra, Anand Mahindra on Sunday announced that his company's manufacturing units will make ventilators and offers his holiday resorts as temporary care facilities to help India fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The billionaire businessman also said that he has decided to contribute 100 per cent of his salary to a fund created by his company to fight the coronavirus outbreak.
He said that a lockdown over the next few weeks will help slow the spread and ease the pressure on medical care but there is still a scarcity of ventilators and medical facilities to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. And to deal with that, he said, the Mahindra group will manufacture ventilators and set up temporary hospitals at Mahindra Holidays resorts.
"To help in the response to this unprecedented threat, we at the Mahindra Group will immediately begin work on how our manufacturing facilities can make ventilators. At Mahindra Holidays, we stand ready to offer our resorts as temporary care facilities," Mahindra wrote on Twitter.
Creates fund to help biz affected by the Covid0-19, donates his salary
He said that Mahindra's project teams will also help the government and the Army erect new care facilities and the Mahindra Foundation will create a fund to help small businesses and self-employed affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
"We will encourage associates to voluntarily contribute to the Fund. I will contribute 100% of my salary to it & will add more over the next few months. I urge all our various businesses to also set aside contributions for those who are the hardest hit in their ecosystems," Mahindra said in a series of tweets.
Anand Mahindra is the first Indian business tycoon to have pledged his monetary and logistic support to help the country fight the coronavirus pandemic. The deadly coronavirus, which has killed more than 11,000 and infected over three lakh globally, is spreading fast in India. The number of cases in the country has risen to over 300 from just three at the start of this month and at least six have died.
The epidemiologists believe that stage 3 of the coronavirus transmission may have already started in India and the positive cases could rise exponentially putting a huge strain on medical infrastructure. So far, the country has tested less than 20,000 people and experts say that the number of COVID-19 cases is likely to rise further as more and more people are being tested.
