Salarpuria Sattva Group Takes Up Community Outreach Initiative for Needy During Lockdown

Salarpuria Sattva Group, India’s leading Property Development, Management and Consulting organization, has always been responsible in making a significant social impact to the communities it serves. Amidst the growing criticality due to COVID19 crisis, where the most affected are from the marginalized sections of the society, Salarpuria Sattva Group has extended its boundaries and taken the initiative of feeding the needy everyday till the end of lock down to help them survive in this challenging situation.

The group is taking the onus of cooking by themselves while adhering to hygienic precautions and distributing it in a systematic manner following the Govt. directives of social distancing. Amongst selected areas across the city, Old Airport Road (near Rajeshwari Theater), Royal Orchid Road (near Manipal Centre), Challaghatta, Nagasandra, Murugeshpalya, Jyothi Nivas College at Koramangala are the primary locations where the group has initiated food distribution. Police Stations at Jeevan Beema Nagar and Electronic City have extended help to the company officials to successfully implement this initiative.

In addition to this, the group has organized ration packets consisting of essentials like rice, wheat flour, oil, lentils, salt and other necessities for the next 10 days, aiming to touch the lives of 2500 migrant workers near Electronic City.

Greenwood High School, the educational entity of the group has also come forward to provide cooked food to more than 600 people at Varthur and other nearby localities.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Bijay Agarwal, MD, Salarpuria Sattva Group said, “With the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 and announcement of 21 day lockdown by the Govt., income opportunities for people below the poverty line have stalled. As a responsible entity, we at Salarpuria Sattva Group pledge to help the marginalized section and provide them food till the situation demands. This is our humble effort to help the people in distress.”

Salarpuria Sattva Group wishes safety for everyone and hope the country comes out of the present crisis as soon as possible. 

TKM Sells 8022 Units in March 2020 As It Bids Farewell to Etios and Corolla Altis in India

Having successfully liquidated all its BS4 stocks even at the dealership level, TKM sold a total of 7023 units of BS6 vehicles to its dealers (wholesales) in the month of March 2020. To lessen the burden on its dealers, TKM withheld sales by 50% for the month of March 2020, just ahead of the 21 days national lockdown called upon by the Government of India.  The company also exported its last batch of 999 units of the Etios series last month thus clocking a total of 8022 units.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor had sold a total of 12,818 units in the domestic market in the month of March 2019. The company had exported 844 units of the Etios series in March 2019, thus clocking a total of 13,662 units in the same month last year.

Moreover, last month also witnessed the last batch of the Etios series as well as the Corolla Altis being manufactured at TKM’s plant in Bidadi, bringing an end to the iconic journeys both the models have enjoyed in India. This transition is a part of Toyota’s global product strategy to continue to service the ever-evolving needs of the customer through enhanced technologies and product offerings. However, the company will continue to cater to all Etios series & Corolla Altis customers’ needs through Toyota service outlets across the country along with the promise of availability of Toyota genuine spare parts for the discontinued models.

Commenting on the monthly sales, Mr. Naveen Soni, Senior Vice President, Sales and Service, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “Even though the company has been long successful in liquidating all BS4 stock and transitioning into a 100% BS6 manufacturing facility, last month has been very challenging for us, both in terms of sales as well as production. With the spread of COVID-19 threat in various parts of the country followed by the 21 days national lockdown, the company’s priority was to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all its stakeholders and most importantly our dealers and their staff who are in the frontline. To bring this to immediate effect, our dealerships across the country were shut down beginning March 23rd along with a temporary halt of production at our plant in Bidadi.

We would like to reassure our dealer partners that they are the most important asset for us and we have been thinking about their sustainability. This pandemic has financially impacted all our dealerships across India. While the Government has announced several relief measures including moratoriums, we have also studied the fixed cost expenses of dealerships and have come up with a relief package called the COVID package to assist in maintaining liquidity to improve cash flow. The company is also planning towards ensuring proper sanitization of the dealerships once the national lockdown is over so as to ensure the safety of all our dealer staff as well as the customers who visit the outlets.

TKM wholeheartedly appreciates the measures taken by the Government and will continue to support them by implementing impactful initiatives to deal with this crisis.”

Five Tech Platforms that Offers Support During Coronavirus Outbreak

The country has been exploring every step in their capacity to combat and contain the rapid spread of COVID -19. While it has set a good example in terms of dealing with crisis at initial stage itself, To fight the pandemic, several medtech companies have come forward and developed solutions, which can help in identifying the disease and take preventive measures on time to cure it.

These companies are using a range of technologies in their fight against the pandemic. Here is a list of some of the medtech platforms and solution being deployed in India to curb the virus :

Bione Microbiome Test

Bione has developed a COVID-19 focussed Microbiome test, which combined with its AI, predictive analysis tools can provide tailored recommendations to individuals to strengthen their particular microbiome and thus be more immune to Coronavirus and be able to fight off COVID-19. Bione is working towards boosting preventive healthcare and increasing life expectancy in India. With the vision of leapfrogging genetic testing and microbiome services in India, they have founded Bione Ventures which envisions to empower people to unlock their health and fitness through personalised genetics and microbiome. The genetic programme uncovers the disease predispositions and microbiome, and decode the secret to a healthy gut. It also leads to a healthy family genomic journey with Bione.

Abbott Laboratories Molecular point-of-care test

Abbott Laboratories on Friday announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for the fastest available “molecular point-of-care” test to check for Covid-19.The test can detect positive results in five minutes, while negative results take about 13 minutes. It will run on Abbott’s ID Now platform, which is small, lightweight and portable. It employs molecular technology, which is highly valued by the scientific community for its accuracy. Apart from quick test results, a selling point of the ID NOW platform is that it can be used in urgent care clinics, not just traditional hospitals.

Mylab Discovery Coronavirus testing kit

Mylab Discovery, in the western city of Pune, became the first Indian firm to get full approval to make and sell testing kits. It shipped the first batch of 150 to diagnostic labs in Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Goa and Bengaluru (Bangalore) this week. The molecular diagnostic company, which also makes testing kits for HIV and Hepatitis B and C, and other diseases, says it can supply up to 100,000 Covid-19 testing kits a week and can produce up to 200,000 if needed.

Whatsapp Chatbot for Coronavirus

India is turning to WhatsApp,  to create awareness about the coronavirus pandemic and has urged social media services to tackle the spread of misinformation on their platforms. Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister, said on Saturday that citizens in the country can text a WhatsApp bot — called MyGov Corona Helpdesk — to get instant authoritative answers to their coronavirus queries such as the symptoms of the viral disease and how they could seek help.

Corona Kavach tracking app

The Government has launched a coronavirus risk-tracking app called ‘Corona Kavach.’ Jointly developed by the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the app uses a person’s location to assess whether they are in the high risk geographical zone or not. The app is now available for download — in beta — for Android phones on the Google Play Store. Corona Kavach is designed to provide information about COVID-19 and capture information. It will track the data of the users every one hour to alert them of whether they have crossed paths with any person who has tested positive for the infection.

Takeda Appoints Koki Sato AS New Country Head for Indian Market

Highlights

* Koki Sato to lead Takeda’s business in India, ensuring patient access to highly innovative medicines
* Seasoned biopharmaceutical leader with over 17 years of experience across geographies

Takeda India announced today the appointment of Koki Sato as the Country Head for the Company’s India business. In his current capacity, he will lead the company’s operations with a focus on the expansion of patient access to Takeda’s highly innovative portfolio in the country.

Koki joined Takeda in 2003 and, since then, grew within the company to hold various senior international roles across multiple functions, including Commercial Operations, Finance, and HR. Prior to this role, Koki was the General Manager of Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova (UBM) Cluster in Takeda’s ICMEA* Area.

Commenting on his new role, Koki Sato said, “India is of significant importance for Takeda and we endeavor to develop initiatives which will lead to enhanced patient access to our highly innovative medicines locally. We remain committed to serving India’s patients, and aim to bring newer therapies for rare diseases, gastroenterology, and oncology to them in the coming years, along with hopefully, our Dengue vaccine candidate.”

Across its ICMEA* Area, and more broadly across the countries that span its Growth & Emerging Markets Business Unit, Takeda collaborates with healthcare providers, governments and regulators, to ensure that its portfolio of innovative medicines is made available to patients as quickly and safely as possible.

Koki will be officially assuming his position from April 1, 2020. He is a Japanese national and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Economics from Waseda University, Japan.

An Update on Twitter’s Efforts to Help You Find Credible Information About #coronavirus

A Message from Mahima Kaul, Director, Public Policy, India and South Asia, Twitter: “We understand our role as an essential service for both the government to communicate with citizens and for the public to stay connected with each other. We are ensuring that everyone on the service has access to the latest and credible updates as we all navigate the COVID-19 crisis. Online communities and conversations have never been more important and we are committed to protect and serve the public conversation and support the authorities as they navigate this unprecedented moment.”

For India specifically, we wanted to provide you with recent top-level updates around the work Twitter is doing. We’ll link to our blogs below so you can read more updates in detail.

Working closely with the Government of India and relevant stakeholders

We have open lines of communication with the relevant authorities in the central and state governments and public health officials, to ensure they can troubleshoot account issues, and seek strategic counsel as they use the power of Twitter to mitigate harm and connect with the public at large. We're working with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, various State Governments to upskill various departments on COVID response management. We have also supported and enabled the Govt of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh to  set-up dedicated COVID-Response accounts. Govt. of karnataka, Maharashtra; Follow them here: DIPR Karnataka, Maharashtra  Control room, Jharkhand COVID Helpline, UP Covid helpline.  We have also published a Twitter List of key police accounts on Twitter for latest and credible information on #Lockdown21. People can Tweet to them for any queries. A strong example of this was @DelhiPolice using the service to host a Tweet Chat, addressing public queries and concerns related to the Lockdown.

COVID-19 Search Prompt

Twitter is dedicated to ensure people have uninterrupted and real-time access to the conversations that matter. To this end, Twitter offers a dedicated COVID-19 search prompt. When people come to the service to search for related COVID-19 conversation, the search prompt offers content from credible sources such as national health agencies and the World Health Organisation (@WHO). To make the search prompt as useful as possible, Twitter has partnered with local agencies in countries across the world. In India, the search prompt directs people to the official Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (@MoHFW) and @WHO websites.

The feature is being constantly monitored by the Twitter team to ensure that all related keywords, including common misspellings, generate the proactive search prompt.

Dedicated Bilingual Events Page

Twitter has launched an events page dedicated to COVID-19 information. The page, called “Coronavirus Tweets from Indian authorities”, is essentially a timeline of Tweets from verified Indian officials such as the Prime Minister Narendra Modi (@narendramodi), Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) and other state and central ministers, as well as public health agencies. Launched in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (@MoHFW), this page is an attempt to share the latest facts from verified sources. Every account holder in India can see this page on the top of their home timeline. If someone has their settings set to Hindi, then they will see the same page with Hindi Tweets. The timeline also let’s people track developments around the latest social distancing and healthcare information.

WHO’s #SafeHands / #Handwashing Emoji and #SafeHandsChallenge https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/TZ_WMlFgcrPGpLxjQb0xWQ7JpgJ-ZE9cvdyqK8NkTBDZ2GE3og9Vz3qJc0aQBOOTDrkacbVPfgx5OYx8nB3jgMagMMVhBISs8c1YF0WoX_hWj9TGuXAFe8zR6L1m9aJZmpCGRocN

In partnership with the World Health Organisation (@WHO), Twitter launched a #handwashing emoji to create awareness around the importance of cleaning hands in the current time and emphasize the importance of 'washing hands frequently' to curb spreading of the virus. People can unlock the emoji using any of the following hashtags #handwashing, #SafeHands, #HandWashChallenge, #WashYourHands, #हाथधोलेना, #हाथकीसफाईमेंभलाई, #हाथधोयाक्या.

Twitter’s Public Policy team is connected directly to the WHO team to offer advice on how best to use the service to connect their critical updates with the world.

Fight against misinformation around COVID-19

We are committed to working with the Government of India and focused on protecting the public conversation. We have expanded our safety rules and broadened our definition of harm to address content that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health information. In addition to reports, we will enforce this in close coordination with trusted partners, including public health authorities and governments, and continue to use and consult with information from those sources when reviewing content. More information here.

An update on our continuity strategy during COVID-19
Our working guidance to our employees and partners to keep them safe
Our partnerships and public engagement strategies

Thank you for your continued support and do let us know if we can assist in any way for your stories/queries.  #StaySafeStayHome as #IndiaFightsCorona and #FlattenTheCurve

This message contains information which may be confidential and privileged. Unless you are the intended recipient (or authorized to receive this message for the intended recipient), you may not use, copy, disseminate or disclose to anyone the message or any information contained in the message. If you have received the message in error, please advise the sender by reply e-mail, and delete the message. Thank you very much.

Covid19 - ITC to Help Produce Additional 1,25,000 Litres of Savlon Hand Sanitisers

ITC's newly commissioned state of the art Perfume manufacturing Facility in Himachal Pradesh commences production of Savlon sanitisers -Addresses a larger societal purpose during this pandemic

To serve a larger national priority during these challenging times, ITC’s state-of-the-art Perfume manufacturing facility in Himachal Pradesh has commenced production of Savlon Sanitisers to cater to the soaring demand due to the outbreak of the Corona virus pandemic. Commissioned recently in November 2019, the factory at Manpura in Himachal Pradesh is a world class facility designed to produce premium fine fragrances.

Amidst the global health crisis and the unprecedented surge in demand for hand hygiene products like sanitisers, ITC, on a war footing, repurposed this world class perfume facility to help produce an additional 1,25,000 litres of Savlon Hand Sanitisers .

During these challenging times, ITC has redoubled its efforts to ensure enhanced supply and availability of Savlon range of products in the market. This intervention will enable ITC to meet the demand surge for sanitisers in the market.  In line with the Government order and in public interest, ITC has also reduced prices of Savlon sanitisers and is working overnight to reach the new stocks with the revised prices to the market. ITC has also reinforced its efforts to enhance awareness about the importance of hand hygiene through campaigns across digital, print and other communication platforms. 

Quote from Mr Sameer Satpathy, Chief Executive, Personal Care Products, ITC Ltd
Addressing a larger national requirement during the Coronavirus pandemic, ITC has repurposed its recently commissioned perfume manufacturing facility in Manpura, Himachal Pradesh to manufacture Savlon Hand Sanitizers. This initiative reinforces our efforts to enable enhanced production and supply of Savlon range of hygiene products in the market which is the need of the hour to help fight the virus and contain its spread.

SEEDS Joins Fights Against COVID-19, Activates Action in 7 States

SEEDS in partnership with Government of India and state governments of Bihar, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttarakhand in India is reaching out to the most economically vulnerable people. The humanitarian organisation specialising in building resilience among communities is actively working in close coordination with the administration at various levels in each region to respond to the physical health, mental health and economic impacts of the pandemic.

The global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected more than 195 countries. India with confirmed 562 cases and 9 deaths as of yesterday according to the data reported by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is facing spike in the situation too. Daily wage earners with marginal savings have temporarily lost their jobs and are unable to access food and essential items to sustain themselves. Evidence shows that adults aged 60 years and older or those with chronic medical conditions seem to be at highest risk of complications and fatality rates. The elderly in old-age homes or living by themselves without adequate support systems face acute challenges.

SEEDS is committed in reaching out and supporting these invisible individuals – the elderly, children, and frontline health workers of the communities who are disproportionately impacted by coronavirus and the economic consequences of the outbreak in their time of need. The response appeal has been launched towards rapid de-escalation of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 with focus on:

Financial and essential services support to the daily wage earners
Support to district administration for complementing and supplementing public health systems
Supply of hygiene kits and food rations to marginalised families, old age homes and orphanages
Support to Government for establishment of temporary quarantine facilities, where needed

Join hands with SEEDS as your contribution can help save lives and help contain the spread on this critical and potentially fatal disease. Donate now and spread the word at http://www.seedsindia.org/covid19/

Together, this pandemic can be fought by making sure the most vulnerable among us are protected.

About SEEDS:

SEEDS (Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society) is a not-for-profit organisation that enables community resilience through practical solutions in the areas of disaster readiness, response and rehabilitation. Since 1994, the organization has worked extensively on every major disaster in the Indian subcontinent – grafting innovative technology on to traditional wisdom. It has reached out to families affected by disasters and climate stresses; strengthened and rebuilt schools and homes; and has invariably put its faith in skill-building, planning and communications to foster long-term resilience. SEEDS is also India’s first agency to be certified for the global Core Humanitarian Standards – an international certification system for quality and accountability in humanitarian response. SEEDS completed 25 years of outstanding service to humanity in 2019 and is re-anchoring its approach to building resilience through innovation. It continues to empower the most vulnerable across Asia to build a better future.