Google pledges Rs 113 cr to boost healthcare infra in India

New Delhi: Google on Thursday announced new grants of nearly Rs 113 crore to help strengthen India’s healthcare infrastructure and workforce in rural areas, as India prepares for the third Covid wave.

Google.org will support procurement and installation of approximately 80 oxygen generation plants in healthcare facilities in high-need and rural locations with new grants of approximately Rs 90 crore to GiveIndia and nearly Rs 18.5 crore to PATH non-government organisation.

Google.org will also make an Rs 3.6 crore grant to NGO ARMMAN to run skilling programmes for 180,000 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and 40,000 Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) in 15 states in the country.

The company said that it will also invest in the efforts of Apollo Medskills to help upskill 20,000 frontline health workers through specialised training in COVID-19 management and strengthen the stressed rural health workforce and rural health systems.

“We’re now broadening our COVID-19 support to helping strengthen India’s healthcare infrastructure and workforce — especially in rural areas. With these new commitments, Google is proud to be supporting our partners as they build a bigger, better-equipped healthcare system,” said Sanjay Gupta, Country Head and Vice President, Google India.

The new commitments build on the Rs 135 crore ($18 million) funding that was announced by Google in April for COVID-19 response.

In addition to this, Googlers worldwide have donated and helped raise $7 million for organisations supporting high-risk and marginalised communities.

“We are thankful to Google.org for their strong commitment to ensure we save as many preventable deaths as possible, which happen due to lack of medical oxygen,” said Atul Satija, CEO, GiveIndia.