singapores two leading trade organisations have launched a new relief fund to support india in its fight against the covid19 pandemic as the country is battling an unprecedented second wave of the deadly contagion the singapore indian chamber of commerce and industry sicci and the little india shopkeepers association lisha are jointly coordinating efforts by the community to support india sicci has opened an india covid relief fund account with dbs bank with its chairman dr t chandroo making a clarion call on the community at large for contribution chandroo said we want to stand side by side with india as this is a crisis of historic proportions and would require our immediate and urgent assistance i am making a clarion call to the singapore community at large to support this initiative undertaken by sicci and lisha advt the two trade bodies in a joint statement issued on monday night said that the covid19 pandemic is having an unprecedented impact on the people of india leading to multiple crises across the country in the light of these challenges singapore sicci and lisha are jointly raising monetary support to help india manage the immense pressure on its health services the statement said both sicci and lisha are taking the lead in coordinating community efforts to provide support to india sicci has also reached out to the partners of indias ministry of health and family welfare through the high commission of india in singapore to gather information on their most immediate and most urgent priorities we have also received requests from ywam youth with a mission hhl lifecare gilead pharma and several other organisations which are mobilising support on the ground to help india overcome the crisis chandroo said siccis and lishas initial appeal is focused on emergency response to help protect the most vulnerable from direct impact due to the rapid spread of the contagion and to scale up lifesaving protection and assistance in priority states and hospitals in india sicci which has some 500 corporate members with international networks and lisha representing almost all small businesses in singapores little india shopping precinct hope to harness the support of the community to provide the necessary assistance that india requires advt as of now indian hospitals urgently need ventilators and oxygen concentrator devices the two associations said having set up the relief fund account sicci and lisha are the central coordinating and focal point in singapore for the mobilisation of resources required by india a virtual command centre has been organised for the community to get in touch with sicci cares at mobilewhatsapp 96541346 62222855 ms gowri or ms pamela donations will be updated on the telegram channel and the website the statement added india is struggling with a second wave of the pandemic with more than 300000 daily new coronavirus cases being reported in the past few days and hospitals in several states are reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds on tuesday the union health ministry said that