To prevent COVID-19 spread, one of the Government taken steps is LockDown. Though a huge amount of economical loss is there, no other option is available. Among the locked people, the daily-labors are suffering the most, especially those work away from home. To help these people and others, Google comes forward along with the Indian government.
Google is working from the beginning to provide support in the combat against COVID-19. They launched a website for the useful links, stats, and information, CEO Sundar Pichai himself donated ₹5 Crore to India, and so on. They want to contribute more to India.
In an official blog post, Google said, “we have been inspired by how the country has come together to support the valiant efforts of healthcare workers, with businesses stepping up to provide vital resources and support, and NGOs rallying to support vulnerable communities whose livelihoods are impacted.”
Promotion of Authoritative and Reliable Information Source
All the giants like Google, Facebook, etc are strictly against of spreading misinformation. So, when someone googles a coronavirus related query, a specific page will appear containing top stories, MoHFW resources links and more along with authoritative content on symptoms, prevention, treatments, etc.
Not only during the search, but Google also promoting informative and educational videos on YouTube too. All those videos are verified by the MoHFW, WHO, and other reliable authorities. They also added a Coronavirus News Self. Side by side Google also removing reported videos that violets the guidelines. Videos responsible for discouraging people from taking medical treatments and encouraging the use of unsubstantiated remedies are also processing.
Solutions for Crisis Response
A large number of daily-labors are there who get stuck in different places without any income or food. Indian Government and other NGOs arranged night shelters and food for them. Google started adding those places in Google Maps, Search, and Google Assistant. So that those places will easily accessible. Over 1500 food and night shelters are already added across 33 cities. Anyone can quarry about these shelters in English or Hindi. They will add more languages and places over the coming weeks.
The Vodafone-Idea service users, mainly the feature phone users can locate these places by dialing the toll-free number 8009191000.
Contributing to Crisis Response
There are agencies and not-for-profit developers who offer publicly-available crisis response apps and sites. To support them, Google introduced Ads grants and Google Maps Platform Crisis response credits.
In Google Pay, they have added Nearby Spots. For this option, a user can detect the nearby essential shops are open at that moment or not. The public can also donate directly to the PM-Care fund and all other NGOs through Google Pay. More than ₹105 crores already donated via this platform.
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