Google to donate 135cr. to India for Covid-19 fight in India

Amid an unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases in India, Google has announced to provide financial aid of ₹135 crores for medical supplies and to assist communities in general, informed CEO Sundar Pichai on Monday.

CEO of Google and Alphabet, Pichai tweeted, “Devastated to ascertain the worsening COVID-19 crisis in India. Google & Googlers are providing ₹135 Crore in funding to @GiveIndia, @UNICEF for medical supplies, organs supporting high-risk communities, and grants to assist spread critical information.”

India reported 3.52 lakh fresh coronavirus cases within the last 24 hours. 

Pichai's tweet also had a link to a blog where Google detailed ways to assist in their efforts to fight the worsening situation.

On the blog, Sanjay Gupta, country head and VP, Google India wrote, “Today we're announcing ₹135 crores (USD 18 million) in new funding for India. This includes two grants from Google.org, Google's philanthropic arm, totalling ₹20 crores (USD 2.6 million). The primary is to Give India to supply cash assistance to families hit the hardest by the crisis to assist with their everyday expenses. The second will attend UNICEF to assist get urgent medical supplies, including oxygen and testing equipment, to where it's needed most in India. It also includes donations from our ongoing employee giving campaign -- thus far quite 900 Googlers have contributed ₹3.7 Crore (USD 500,000) for organizations supporting high-risk and marginalized communities.”

Moreover, Gupta also informed about Ad Grant support for public health information campaigns.

“This funding also includes increased Ad Grant support for public health information campaigns. Since last year, we've helped MyGov and therefore the World Health Organization reach audiences with messages focused on the way to stay safe and facts about vaccines. We're increasing our support today with a further ₹112 Crore (USD 15 million) in Ad Grants to local health authorities and non-profits for more language coverage options,” said Gupta.

“Google is already helping India with its core information products like Search and Maps, YouTube and Ads. COVID-19 features on Search are available in India, in English and eight Indian languages, that still improves localization and highlight authoritative information.

“This includes information on where to urge testing and vaccines. Maps and Search surface thousands of vaccine sites. Google is additionally collaborating closely with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, and with organizations just like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to support vaccine awareness initiatives,” he added.

On YouTube, Google is supporting the Indian government in their vaccine awareness strategy. It ran a workshop for 200 health officials to find out how they can use YouTube to reach out to Indian audiences with vaccine information.