Corporate help for the Kargil cause, which began trickling in a fortnight ago, is gradually streaming in. Companies have realised that national security is a worthwhile cause. And of course they don't mind the mileage they get out of it. The Tata group of companies has emerged as the single largest private sector contributor so far. The company has committed an amount of Rs 5 crore to the defence forces. One of the first contributions came from the Korean car company, Daewoo, which donated Rs 20 lakh plus five Cielo cars to the army's relief corpus.

The Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) plans to contribute Rs 5.6 crore. The Indian Merchants Chamber Relief Fundhas collected Rs 11.30 lakh after issuing an appeal to its members. Of course, this is a paltry sum coming as it does from a leading business association of Mumbai. Jitendra Sanghvi, secretary, IMC, admits that they could do better. College students working with an NGO called The Literate India Movement are helping the IMC create awareness on the issue.

The Bennett Coleman group has donated Rs 1 lakh to the IMC fund, and put in Rs 5 lakh into their own Times of India Relief Fund. The Indian Express group of newspapers and The Hindustan Times has also contributed to collection drives for the soldiers' families.

Not to be left out, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) announced a contribution of Rs 2 crore toward relief, rehabilitation and other humanitarian assistance for the armed forces. RIL chairman Dhirubhai Ambani told shareholders at the annual general meeting last week that the company would contribute Rs 1 crore, while its employees would contribute an equal amount by way of a day's salary.

LGElectronics has also followed suit with a contribution of Rs 22.71 lakh, which was handed over to the Prime Minister towards the National Defence Fund, to be utilised for the welfare of the families of the deceased soldiers. Help is coming in from other quarters, too. IndusInd Bank, a constituent of the Hinduja group, has initiated a Kargil fund towards which its board has made an initial contribution of Rs 5 lakh.

Hutchison Max Telecom has contributed a rupee for every one minute of airtime used by MaxTouch subscribers on June 20. Moreover, its employees decided to put in an extra day's work on June 26 and donate the day's salary to the jawans' families. The company proposes to hand over the money to the GOC Army, Western Command, around the end of June.

Intranet software development firm NetAcross has placed boxes at its offices all over India where employees can insert money, mementos and messages for the Kargil jawans. The boxes are opened every fortnight.

In a unique gesture, its staff in New Delhiassembles regularly to offer prayers for the well-being of the brave men on the border. Delhi-based Batra Hospital has offered free hospitalisation, medical charges, surgery and rehabilitation for all injured soldiers of the army. The hospital authorities have announced that they would treat all soldiers from the Kargil front till such time they recover fully.

Wanting to do something more than donating money, the ITC Hotels are planning some more innovative schemes to help the widows of those who have laid down their lives in Kargil, along with a corpus for the families of the martyrs.

Brigadier Kewlani, advisor, Corporate Services, ITC Hotels, says, ``While we will be donating one day's pay for the forces, we want to do something more substantial for them. The ITC hotels are planning to sponsor those children who have lost their fathers in the Kargil operations for a hotel management course. We will also finance the education of the children who are at the school level.''

For the widows, ITC Hotels iswilling to set up a training facility wherever the army wants. ``We intend using the training facilities available at the AWWA centres in the country for the widows, by being their very first big customer,'' says Kewlani. For example, AWWA manufactures freshly ground spices. ITC Hotels intends to buy these products straight from them, thereby providing them more work opportunities.

``We have also offered to create extra vacancies in the house-keeping department at our Delhi and Bangalore units to accommodate more war widows who are interested,'' he says.

Kabir Mulchandani's Baron International will set aside Rs 100 on the sale of every hi-fi stereo system and colour TV for the martyrs' families. But this move has invited criticism for linking the national cause with consumerism. Mulchandani counters this argument saying, "A consumer pays anywhere close to Rs 17,000 for our premium product. So his buying decision is not going to be influenced by the fact that Rs 100 from his purchase is going to themartyrs' families. But it does give him a chance to feel good about having participated in the national cause. Moreover, even if we did declare Rs 1 crore as relief assistance outright, the source of our revenue would remain the consumer. We are concerned about the families of the jawans or we would not have been the first company to declare our support for the cause."Well, it's certainly better than doing nothing. Notable corporates who have no plans to speak of are Birla, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Godrej and ITC.

Multinationals having business interests in Pakistan are wary about making what they think might be construed as a political statement. Many public sector undertakings, like the National Thermal Power Coporation and BHEL, have pledged a percentage of their salaries for the Kargil martyrs.

As far as non-governmental organisations go, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has put the contributions from individuals and corporates into a trust called the Shaheed Parivar Raksha Nidhi. It also plans to start a blooddonation drive soon.

Though many of the corporates reacted late, they have made generous donations and proved that they care for the country, too.

--with inputs from Huma Siddiqui & Vidya Deshpande