Our Bureau New York
As India reported the highest COVID death toll in single day on Saturday with 3700 people succumbing to virus, the Indian Americans are all out to help their mother land. It includes tech leaders and billionaires who have also urged the US government to provide every possible help to India
US-headquartered tech giant Google’s chief executive officer Sundar Pichai announced that the tech giant will be giving ₹135 crore ($18 million) in new funding for India.
The company (Google) also mentioned in its blog that the biggest way they can help is through our core information products like Search and Maps, YouTube and Ads. Our COVID features on Search are available in India, in English and eight Indian languages, and we continue to improve localization and highlight authoritative information. That includes information on where to get testing and vaccines; so far, Maps and Search surface thousands of vaccine sites, and they are working to add tens of thousands more.
Another tech leader, Satya Nadella, the chief executive officer of Microsoft took to social media platform Twitter to say that Microsoft will use its resources and technology to support India during the crisis.
Earlier, another Indian-American tech leader, Vinod Khosla – co-founder of Sun Microsystems – had announced a fund for hospitals in India to build up their supply of oxygen containers and concentrators among other essential supplies – an opportunity that appealed to India’s biggest hospital chains.
“I’m willing to fund hospitals in India that need funding to import bulk planeloads of oxygen or supplies into India to increase supply. Public hospitals and NGO’s also please reach out,” Vinod Khosla said.
Vinod Khosla also made an important point that with AstraZeneca awaiting approval from the administration, it is best to export the vaccine and make do with Moderna and Pfizer.
“The AZ vaccine is unlikely to be ever approved in the US given current alternatives here. @Potus should absolutely release all doses and future commitments for US supply since Moderna and @pfizer can supply US needs,” he said.
Balaji Srinivasan, a Silicon Valley investor, has also announced a donation of up to $100,000 for COVID-19 relief in India.
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, on the other hand, said, “We need to release our stockpile of unused AstraZeneca vaccines now. In India alone, almost 350,000 COVID-19 cases were reported today. When people in India and elsewhere desperately need help, we can’t let vaccines sit in a warehouse, we need to get them where they’ll save lives.” Following the reactions from the India Diaspora in US, the Biden administration has also soften their stance and have promised to provide every kind of assistance to India to fight out this pandemic.
