Apple chief executive Tim Cook has pledged support for India’s efforts to fight the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The company will be making donations and aid relief efforts on the ground, Cook said on Twitter.
“Amid a devastating rise of Covid cases in India, our thoughts are with the medical workers, our Apple family and everyone there who is fighting through this awful stage of the pandemic. Apple will be donating to support and relief efforts on the ground” Cook said in a tweet.
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Amid a devastating rise of COVID cases in India, our thoughts are with the medical workers, our Apple family and ev… https://t.co/6x9sL0vnRF
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) 1619469186000
This move comes a day after Apple’s Big Tech peers Google, Microsoft and Amazon assured help to the country’s relief efforts.
Google chief executive Sundar Pichai committed Rs 135 crore for medical supplies and organisations supporting high-risk communities. This includes two grants totalling Rs 20 crore from its philanthropic arm Google.org to online donation platform Give India and UNICEF. The funding also includes donations from more than 900 Google employees, who have contributed Rs 3.7 crore for organisations supporting high-risk and marginalised communities.
Meanwhile, Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella committed to support the purchase of critical oxygen concentration devices.
Amazon also joined hands with ACT Grants, Temasek Foundation, and Pune Platform for Covid-19 Response (PPCR) among several industry partners to airlift over 8,000 oxygen concentrators and 500 BiPAP machines from Singapore. It said the equipment will be donated to hospitals and public institutions in various cities.
The second Covid-19 wave has left hundreds of people dead as states struggle to deal with increasing caseloads amid a creaky hospital infrastructure. A shortage of oxygen supplies for patients in cities such as Delhi has also forced the government to import and move industrial production of the commodity towards medical needs.
The chief executives of about 40 top American companies have also come together to create a country-specific global task force in order to provide critical medical supplies, vaccines, oxygen and other life-saving assistance amid an unprecedented surge in Covid cases in the country.
A collective initiative of the US-India Business Council of the US Chamber of Commerce, and the US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum and Business Roundtable, the task force has committed to deliver 20,000 oxygen concentrators to India in the next few weeks, Deloitte CEO Punit Renjen told PTI.
