Patanjali Ayurved, the FMCG company led by Baba Ramdev has made a donation of Rs 25 crore to the Coronavirus relief fund setup by the Prime Minister. The other companies of the group, Patanjali dairy and Ruchi Soya (which was acquired recently by Patanjali) have also jumped in by having their employees contribute a day’s salary to the cause which has totalled another Rs 1.50 crore.
The fund is called the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situation Fund (PM-CARES Fund).
Ramdev’s company has had a meteoric rise in the Indian FMCG space launching a range of groceries, cosmetics and other products and giving the established firms like HUL, a run for their money.
The company has also announced that apart from these direct cash contributions, they intend setting up quarantine centres in five different locations with the capacity to accommodate 1,500 persons. These companies will come up in Haridwar in Uttarakhand where their headquarters is located and one each in Sadhupul (Himachal Pradesh), Modinagar (UP), Kolkata and Guwahati (Assam).
Patanjali joins several other companies who have donated to PM-CARES. Reliance Industries committed Rs 500 crore to fight COVID-19. Kotak Mahindra Bank and its CEO too, committed Rs 50 crore for the same.
Meanwhile, around 2,56,000 employees of State Bank of India (SBI), have decided to contribute two days' salary to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund. With this collective effort of SBI employees, Rs 100 crore will be donated to the PM CARES Fund which is created to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Last week, SBI had committed 0.25% of annual profit for FY 2019-20 as a part of its CSR (corporate
Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic and CSR arm of Infosys has also announced a commitment of Rs 100 crore. The Foundation contributed half of this commitment (Rs 50 crore) to the PM CARES Fund.