WASHINGTON: Sunder Pichai, 2 Other Indian-Americans On Covid Global Taskforce Panel

WASHINGTON: Three Indian-American CEOs Sunder
Pichai from Google, Punit Renjen from Deloitte, and Shantanu Narayen from Adobe
have joined the steering committee of the Global Task Force on Pandemic
Response, which is overseeing an unprecedented corporate sector initiative to
help India successfully fight COVID19.

The names
of the three Indian-American CEOs were added to the list of the steering
committee on Thursday.

The three
CEOs have been active in organising US companies’ response to the COVID-19
crisis in India.

Others
who were added to the list on Thursday are Mark Suzman, CEO, Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation; Joshua Bolten, president, and CEO, Business Roundtable and
Suzanne Clark, president, and CEO, US Chamber of Commerce.

The task
force is a newly formed public-private partnership organised by the US Chamber
of Commerce and supported by Business Roundtable. It is working with the
Chamber’s US-India Business Council and the US-India Strategic Partnership
Forum to take immediate actions to help address the COVID-19 surge in India.

The US
corporate sector so far has committed more than 25,000 oxygen concentrators for
India. The first 1,000 oxygen concentrators, provided by Deloitte, arrived in
India on April 25, with critical logistical support from FedEx.

These
concentrators will be shipped to designated healthcare facilities for immediate
use, the task force said.

The first
shipment of ventilators landed in India early this week. All 1,000 ventilators
are expected to reach India by June 3.

Medtronic
will provide end-to-end support for the initiative.

As many
as 16 businesses have joined the task force’s ventilator initiative.

Together
these businesses will provide over USD 30 million in support for India’s
healthcare response – joining the dozens of businesses that have pledged their
support in efforts to provide oxygen concentrators, develop information and
best practices to support employees in India, and more, the task force said.

According
to the task force, while the country has been reporting over 4,00,000 cases
daily, the actual case rate in India is estimated to be much higher.

Experts
forecast the crisis will only worsen, with India’s peak not expected until
mid-May, it said.

Other
members of the steering committee include Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture; Andy
Jassy, the CEO of Amazon, Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, Brian Moynihan, Chairman
of the Board and CEO, Bank of America; Raj Subramaniam, president FedEx; and
Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO, IBM.

Gail
McGovern, president, and CEO, American Red Cross; Mike Parra, CEO Americas, DHL
Express; Jim Fitterling, Chairman and CEO, Dow; Alex Gorsky, chairman of the
Board and CEO, Johnson & Johnson; Michael Miebach, CEO, Mastercard; Geoff
Martha, chairman and CEO, Medtronic; Brad Smith, president, Microsoft; Ramon
Laguarta, Chairman of the Board and CEO, PepsiCo; Carol Tomé, CEO, UPS; Sanjay
Poonen, COO, VMware; and Judith McKenna, President and CEO, Walmart
International are also members of the task force.

Till
date, over 45 US businesses and associations have contributed to the Global
Task Force’s activities.

While the
task force is focusing initial efforts on the pressing need in India,
additional working groups will be formed to address COVID-19 surges in other
countries.