Bharti Enterprises’ COVID-19 Response
These are extremely challenging times as the world battles the biggest healthcare crisis of modern era in the form of COVID-19 epidemic. As a nation, our immediate priority is to collectively support the efforts of the Government to mitigate the impact of this crisis.
As an essential services provider, Airtel mobilized processes swiftly to ensure that the country remained connected with their loved ones during these extraordinary times. The organization has stepped up the infrastructure to extended support to enterprises to ensure business continuity for them.
Contribution
Bharti Enterprises and its companies Bharti Airtel, Bharti Infratel and others are contributing a sum of over Rs 100 crore to collectively support government’s efforts to mitigate the impact of this crisis.
While a significant portion of the corpus will be immediately contributed to the PM – CARES Fund. The balance amount is being directed towards:
a. Sourcing of masks, PPE and other key equipment for the doctors, healthcare workers and essential services personnel who are at the forefront of this massive battle.
b. Over a million N-95 masks are being procured and will be made available on an immediate basis.
Contribution by employees
In addition to the Rs 100 crore committed by Bharti Enterprises, the employees of Bharti are also making personal voluntary contributions towards this cause through a platform set up by the company. Bharti Companies will match the amount contributed by their employees, and the same will be contributed towards the Covid-19 initiatives.
Special Measures
Airtel has also announced special measures to shield over 80 million low income mobile customers from the impact of COVID-19 crisis.
a. The company has extended the pre-paid pack validity for over 80 million customers till April 17th, 2020. All these customers will continue to get incoming calls on their Airtel mobile numbers even after the validity of their plan is exhausted.
b. Airtel will also credit an additional Rs 10 of talk time in the pre-paid accounts of all these 80 million customers to enable them to make calls or send SMS and therefore stay connected with their loved ones.
Additional Measures
Additionally, the teams on ground have joined hands with local vegetable hawkers, with chemists, and cab aggregators to enable convenient recharges.
The organisation is also proactively educating consumers who are online to leverage digital channels for swift query resolutions.
The network team at Airtel is also going all out to deliver a steady network experience even as usage is going up. Airtel is also ensuring safety and well-being of its employees especially of the essential workforce.
Read about our efforts in ensuring rural children continue education during lockdown