Emergency Management and Research Institute, which runs the ‘108’ emergency medical help ambulance service, has been renamed GVK-EMRI. It has also made additions to its board.
These changes come as a consequence of a change of EMRI management, with the GVK Group becoming an investor. Subsequent to the induction of Dr G. V. K. Reddy as Chairman, the EMRI Governing Board met on Wednesday and took some important decisions.
EMRI inducted Mr Abid Hussain, former Indian Ambassador to the US; Mr D.R. Kaarthikeyan, former Director of CBI and Director-General of the National Human Rights Commission; and Mr A. Ramakrishna, former Deputy Managing Director and President of L&T-ECC, as independent directors.
Board members
EMRI already has four independent directors — Mr Rajat Gupta, Chairman, ISB and Senior Partner Emeritus, McKinsey & Company; Prof Raj Reddy of Carnegie Mellon University; Dr Jayaprakash Narayan, President, Lok Satta; and Mr Krishnam Raju, Secretary, Indo-American Cancer Society. The Chief Executive Officer is Mr Venkat Changavalli.
With the GVK Group becoming an investor along with the State Government in EMRI, the corporate would be represented on the board by besides Mr G. V. K. Reddy, Ms G. Indira Krishna Reddy, Mr G. V. Sanjay Reddy, Vice-Chairman, and Mr Som Bhupal (Mr Krishnaram Bhupal as an alternate member).
Mr G. V. K. Reddy said he was committed to take the organisation across the country. EMRI, a non-profit organisation, launched the ‘108’ emergency response service on August 15, 2005 under a public-private partnership with the Andhra Pradesh Government. Satyam Computer Services provided the technology platform and its former founder Chairman, Mr B. Ramalinga Raju, and associates provided 5 per cent funding till the financial fraud hit the IT company.
EMRI operates nearly 2,000 ambulances in nine States (Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Goa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Assam and Meghalaya) serving some 368 million people.
Source: The Hindu Businessline