At Wipro, we took immediate steps as the COVID-19 situation unfolded in India and mobilized our teams to respond. To give a wide-scale response to COVID-19, we have leveraged the expertise of our network organizations Azim Premji Foundation and Wipro Enterprises Limited. Together, we committed Rs 1,125 crore (USD 156 million) towards tackling COVID-19 in India, in which Wipro Limited’s commitment was Rs 100 crore, Wipro Enterprises Limited was Rs 25 crore, and that of the Azim Premji Foundation was Rs 1,000 crore. These sums were in addition to the annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities of Wipro and the usual philanthropic spending of Azim Premji Foundation.

Since April 2020, we have operationalized our COVID-19 response in collaboration with a 1600-member team from Azim Premji Foundation, 55,000+ members from 500+ Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), local administration in 27 states and 3 UTs, thousands of public-school teachers, and the alumni network of Azim Premji University.  This collective ground intelligence has helped us in reaching out to over 13 million people in need. In May 2021, we increased our joint contribution to Rs 2,125 crores (USD 286 million) to substantially expand our work on vaccination.

In the face of the crisis and its scale, we have ensured that our responses were both internally and externally focused. Internally, we have endeavored to ensure minimal or zero loss of jobs and livelihoods of our suppliers and vendors who provide a range of contract services like housekeeping, security, etc. We have also enabled Work from Home, provided desktops and reimbursements for computer accessories, provided additional leave to our COVID-positive staff, facilitated isolation centres and organized vaccination camps for employees.

Externally, we have collaborated with CSOs and the government to aid frontline workers and support underserved communities. Our comprehensive, on-the-ground response includes immediate humanitarian aid such as providing food and basic hygiene products, augmenting healthcare capacity and supporting livelihood regeneration initiatives in in 27 states and 3 UTs. In response to the evolving nature of the crisis, we have learned by doing and re-calibrated our responses as the situation has changed.