India Inc steps in to handle Covid woes

New Delhi Corporate India is stepping up to shoulder coronavirus-induced challenges by lending a helping hand through various initiatives like testing, vaccination camps, financial aid, medical help and resource access for Covid-19 care. As the country battles with the second wave of the pandemic, companies are tweaking policies on loans, insurance and leaves to help employees take care of themselves and their families. Apart from facilitating vaccination appointments and paid vaccination leaves, many corporates have updated the group Mediclaim policy to cover Covid-19-related expenses for employees and their families. "We are offering Covid-19 Kavach policies for employees and their family members to meet Covid-related medical expenses, in addition to Group Term and Mediclaim cover," said Kristyl Bhesania, executive vice-president and head (human resources) at Tata AIA Life Insurance. HDFC Life has taken initiatives like doctor on call, facilitation of Covid-19 vaccination, mediclaim e-cards and hospitalisation, said Vibhash Naik, head (HR, Learning & Development and Admin) at HDFC Life. He added that oxygen concentrators are being made available in select cities. "Medicines and laboratory tests at discounted rates are available for the employees through an app," Naik noted.

Capgemini has a centralised, all-India command centre that addresses the employees' and their dependent's medical emergencies and needs related to availability of hospital beds, ICU, ventilators, ambulance service, blood plasma donors, oxygen concentrators, and medicine requests.