The flood devastation has seen big business showing its human side.

The biggest donor so far is the Adani Foundation, with ₹25 crore for immediate relief, and another ₹25 crore committed for rehabilitation and resettlement. The parent group’s employees have pledged a day’s salary to Kerala. AF also has teams in remote areas distributing materials to relief camps, and has started rehabilitation work in collaboration with the group’s Vizhinjam port project.

The Reliance Foundation has donated ₹21 crore, and also has relief teams on the ground. RF has committed to setting up medical camps with Malayalam-speaking doctors and paramedical staff, supplying medicines to the government for use by district authorities, and providing construction equipment and skilled workers to repair or rebuild public infrastructure. The parent group has contributed relief material close to ₹50 crore, mostly through Reliance Retail.

Other significant corporate donors to the CMDRF are the Kerala State Electricity Board (₹25cr), ICICI Bank (₹8cr), Ramco Cements (₹2cr), TVS Motors (₹1.5cr), Hero Motors, MRF, Muthoot Finance, Sun TV, and TV Sundram Iyengar & Sons (₹1cr each). And VIT University, Vellore, sent ₹1 crore. The Mumbai-based Jyothi Laboratories, whose promoters hail from the state, donated ₹1.28 crore. Also from west Asia, Dubai-based Fathi Health Care Group and Abir Group of Saudi Arabia donated ₹1 crore each. Axis Bank donated ₹2 crore and committed another ₹3 crore for rehabilitation through partner NGOs; it has also waived penalties on cheque bounces and delayed repayments of loans in August 2018. Employees of GAIL have contributed a day’s salary, ₹1.54 crore.

The oil PSUs collectively donated ₹25 crore, and the Seafood Exporters Association sent ₹1.15 crore. CII-Telangana said member companies, including TCS, ITC PSPD, Gati, Shree Malani Group, Ankur Biscuits, Ravi Foods, and a few individual donors had sent over 23 tonnes of relief material, and two RO plants from Tata Projects, which can purify 1,000 litres an hour.

Kerala-based Josco Jewellers contributed ₹2.5 crore and Kalyan Jewellers ₹1.1 crore.

Tech majors chip in

International majors and domestic players used technology to enhance relief work and help channel donations.

Google’s Geo platform is using a mix of news and crowdsourced data, and Google Developers Experts issued warnings of closed roads across the most affected districts. Google also activated its Person Finder in English and Malayalam — about 22,000 records were checked at last count, a Google statement said — and added local updates and official emergency resources to its SOS alert service. It also added a Distress Relief Fund button to Tez, its payment app. Flood-affected people can use their Android devices to generate ‘plus codes’ of their locations to help rescuers find them; these codes can even be generated offline and shared over voice call or SMS.

Retailer Amazon India is supporting non-profits Habitat for Humanity India, World Vision India, and Goonj, and encouraging customers to donate relief goods to them through its platform. Its operations team is providing drinking water to impacted service partners, associates and immediate communities. The company said employees have donated lakhs of rupees through its in-house volunteering portal.

Microsoft is also encouraging donations from its employees from their August salaries, and the company will match that sum, then route the funds through partner Oxfam India for humanitarian assistance, food security, safe drinking water and other necessities. German software-maker SAP has sent out a batch of supplies through HOPE Foundation to the most affected places, and is asking its employees to contribute funds, relief material (packed food and food grains, water, sanitary pads) and goods for the ongoing clean-up (equipment, disinfectants, buckets, mugs, mosquito repellents, emergency lights).

Not just cash

Many companies have used their core offerings to channel public goodwill.

E-commerce major Flipkart and online grocery firms Grofers and Bigbasket are encouraging customers to donate funds and goods to Goonj, one of the prominent organisations working on the ground. Bigbasket and Grofers have both committed to donating 20% of all individual contributions made via their platforms.

The All India Drugs Control Officer’s Confederation has sent ₹2.7 crore worth of medicines and consumables, with more to come. Hyderabad-based telemedicine firm DocOnline launched a free 9a.m. to 9p.m. helpline number for medical queries, 8822127127, staffed by its doctors.

A Eureka Forbes statement said that in addition to providing over 16,000 free drinking water bottles so far, the company will collaborate with Habitat of India to distribute gravity-based water purifiers and personal purifiers which will not require electricity, and service machines to customers whose own filters had been damaged by the floods. Employees would also contribute a day or more of their salaries.

Reliance Digital said it would tie up with manufacturers for repair clinics for appliances, with free labour and materials at cost. Reliance Jio has given its Kerala customers free seven-day packages. Idea Cellular has set up call booths at relief camps in the most-affected areas to help people make free calls to their loved ones; it is also waiving SIM replacement charges until 31 August for its prepaid customers whose phones have been damaged.

A collective of Malayali organisations in the Mumbai region which collected donated goods at Kerala House in Navi Mumbai, and packed and sent them to Kerala, said a number of local businesspersons had donated the services of trucks paid for fuel to send the material to Kerala, and Air India had airlifted 2 tonnes of medicines for free.

Individuals as generous as corporations

M.A. Yusuffali, Gulf-based Malayali businessman — ₹5 crore

Ravi Pillai, Gulf-based Malayali businessman — ₹5 crore

Syed Mohammed, financial advisor to Sharjah’s ruler — ₹4 crore

B.R. Shetty, non-Malayali NRI with close ties to Kerala — ₹4 crore

Reporting from S. Anil Radhakrishnan in Thiruvananthapuram, Peerzada Abrar in Bengaluru, N. Ravi Kumar in Hyderabad