One of the best features of the initiatives being sustained by the Tata Relief Committee (TRC) in tsunami-hit Tamil Nadu has been the manner in which different Tata enterprises have pooled disparate skills to realise a common objective.

• Also see Wave of relief Getting started Immediate relief Permanent rehabilitation The collector's testimonial The people story

  Tata Teleservices, Tata Motors, VSNL, Tata Steel, Tata AIG, Indian Hotels and Titan had their respective people participating in a task force that interacted with the state government to help relocate affected families. Indian Hotels also helped by sourcing material for the family relief kits provided by TRC.
• Tata Projects pitched in by developing a mobile desalination plant capable of producing about 2,000 litres of water an hour, a big boon in water-scarce Tamil Nadu. The plant, installed between Akkarapettai and Keechankuppam villages in Nagapattinam, caters to a population of 2,500 families. Tata Projects is now working on supplying four more desalination plants. This is welcome news in a situation where debris continues to be ever present and seawater has rendered groundwater unfit to drink. The district administration and the local people are full of appreciation for this initiative.
• The Tata Institute of Social Sciences has conducted an intensive review of the tsunami's impact on the Andaman Islands and Tamil Nadu. The Institute has also mobilised 27 schools and 1,200 volunteers for social work.
• Tata Motors handled the responsibility of logistics during TRC's initial relief phase. The company hired vehicles from its dealers and customers to enable the movement of volunteers. It has also offered TRC four multiple-utility vehicles for long-term rehabilitation activities.
• Voltas will be installing an ice plant in one of the affected districts and is also looking at providing refrigerated vans to enable villages to transport fish to the market. A. S. A. Sayeed, territory manager, Voltas, is the process owner of an initiative aimed at providing alternative livelihoods to the affected and empowering women.
• VSNL is working with the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation and the Asia Pacific Satellite Communications Council, Singapore, to provide satellite communications facilities to the rural knowledge centres being developed and built by TRC.
• Tata Group companies based in Tamil Nadu sent 70 volunteers for TRC's temporary relief distribution effort (VSNL sent volunteers from Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kerala). A lot of companies have now offered civil engineers for TRC's proposed house-building initiative.

Uploaded in April 27, 2005