Covid has given us opportunities for renewal: Tata boss
In the past, pandemics have inspired progress in medicine and other fields. This one will be the same, said Chandrasekaran
This year has been hard, but buried in the stress and trauma of covid-19 are opportunities for renewal, Tata Group chairman N. Chandrasekaran said in his New Year message to more than seven lakh employees.
“We are, I hope, on the threshold of a new era of cooperation in which individuals, businesses and nations more readily join forces," he said.
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To distribute a vaccine to every country in the world will be an international operation of unparalleled complexity, he said. “Only a global effort can get us back to normality," he said in his annual letter to employees, a copy of which was seen by Mint.
This March, Tata Trusts and Tata Sons together decided to donate ₹1,500 crore towards coronavirus relief. The funds, the group had said, would be used to provide protective equipment to medical personnel, respiratory systems, testing kits and setting up treatment facilities for those who have already caught the virus.
The group has also said that it will train health workers and the general public to empower them against coronavirus.
“Pandemics have, in the past, inspired progress in medicine, urban planning, architecture and countless other fields. This one will be the same," said Chandrasekaran.
He added that this moment is akin to walking on a bridge. “However, it’s a special bridge, because we are not simply walking to see what is on the other side. Instead, we have a hand in building our destination" he said.
Chandrasekaran thanked his colleagues for facing the challenges covid-19 brought with great professionalism. “Your work this year has made me prouder than ever to lead this group," he said.
In September, Tata Group received approval for the commercial launch of India’s first Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) coronavirus test ‘Feluda’, developed by the Tata Group and CSIR-IGIB (Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology).
“The pandemic did not alter the course of the world, so much as accelerate it along the path it was already on, especially when it comes to questions, we can no longer avoid, such as whether it is the pivotal nature of technology in the era we enter, our relationship with the planet or the roles of our public, private and civil society institutions," he added.
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