All 15 of the large companies Reuters spoke to this week said that they now had vaccination schemes in place. Several outlined COVID-19 "war-rooms" they had launched to support staff and secure oxygen and other supplies.

Initially, managers outside India had not wanted their companies' Indian operations to be seen to be jumping the queue for vaccines, says a senior manager who runs a workforce of more than 600 staff at a global bank in Bengaluru, asking not to be identified.

"The India CEO and others here said: we don't care what it looks like, people are dying."