New Delhi, May 25 (EFE).- India's steel giant Tata has vowed to compensate the families of its workers who die of Covid-19 by paying deceased's salaries and other benefits until the time they would have reached the retirement age of 60.

"Tata Steel stands together with a deep sense of loss at the sad demise of its beloved employees during this dreadful pandemic," the company said in a statement.

The statement, released on social media, said the company's "best-in-class social security schemes will help ensure an honorable standard of living for their families."

"The family will get the last drawn salary till 60 years of age of the deceased employee/nominee," the company said.

The statement said the company would bear all the educational expenses of children of frontline employees, "who as part of their jobs met with an unfortunate death due to Covid-19."

The aid plan launched by Tata Steel was widely hailed on social media networks as India stares at a massive economic impact caused by the devastating second wave of the coronavirus.

Almost all states have imposed lockdowns because of the widespread virus outbreak that has infected millions and killed hundreds of thousands in the second-most populous nation on the planet.

India on Monday became only the third country in the world to record more than 300,000 deaths - after the United States and Brazil.

It has recorded nearly 27 million cases and is now the global epicenter of the pandemic, adding most of the daily infections in the world.

Tata Steel was among the several steel manufacturers in India that responded to the federal government's call for oxygen production as the virus wreaked havoc with the healthcare infrastructure in India.

The company, which employs about 65,000 people, supplied oxygen to hospitals that ran perilously low supplies of the life-saving gas, according to a government statement on May 12.

Many Covid-19 victims died gasping for air because they could not get medical oxygen.

Tata Steel is part of the Indian industrial conglomerate Tata Group, one of the heaviest economic giants in the country.

In 2019-20, the revenue of Tata companies, taken together, was $106 billion, according to the group website. These companies collectively employ over 750,000 people. EFE

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