RIL to donate ₹500 cr to PM-CARES Fund to fight coronavirus pandemic

Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has pledged Rs 500 crore to the PM CARES Fund to battle the coronavirus crisis in India. 

The Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund was formed on March 28 to combat the pandemic at the ground level. It has already seen contributions from top business leaders, including Gautam Adani, Uday Kotak, and celebrities like Akshay Kumar, Virat Kohli, Anushka Sharma, and others. 

Additionally, Reliance has committed Rs 5 crore each to the CM's Relief Funds of Maharashtra and Gujarat to support the states' fight against COVID-19, which has infected over 1,100 people in India.

This announcement comes a week after the Mukesh Ambani-owned conglomerate rolled out India's first dedicated COVID-19 hospital in Mumbai. 

The 100-bed facility is fully funded by the Reliance Foundation and is equipped with the required infrastructure, bio-medical equipment such as ventilators, pacemakers, dialysis machines, and other patient-monitoring devices. 

Reliance has also pledged 50 lakh free meals in the next 10 days across India, and one lakh masks daily for health-workers and caregivers at the frontline of the COVID-19 battle. 

Nita Ambani, Founder-Chairperson of Reliance Foundation, said, “The need of the hour is for us to support our marginalised and daily wage communities. Through our meal distribution programme, we aim to feed lakhs of people daily across the country." 

For benefit of individual customers, Reliance had earlier doubled its data offerings through telecom network Jio. It has also rolled out ‘work from home’, ‘study from home’ and ‘health from home’ initiatives for Jio users.

Besides this, Reliance is providing free fuel for all Emergency Service vehicles that are being used to transport COVID-19 patients to and from quarantine and isolation facilities on the basis of lists shared by government agencies. 

Additionally, the company is also upping its supply of daily essential through Reliance Retail stores and doorstep deliveries. 

"RIL continues its 24x7, multi-pronged, on-the-ground effort to do its bit to ensure the nation remains prepared, fed, supplied, safe, connected and motivated to fight and win against the unprecedented challenges brought upon by the coronavirus pandemic," Reliance said in a statement on Monday.