Big tech cos, startups boost nation’s battle against Covid

Big tech and startups are mounting efforts to procure critical oxygen supplies for hospitals while undertaking vaccination for employees amid the worsening healthcare crisis caused by the second covid wave.

Irish multinational Accenture made a fresh pledge of $25 million to combat the pandemic in India besides providing ventilators, oxygen concentrators and medical kits to frontline workers. The company said it is engaging with the government to provide local language call-centre support for vaccination camps, while setting up continuous telemedicine services for 200,000 individuals and their families.

After importing close to 100 ICU ventilators, Amazon India announced its collaboration with US-India Business Council (USIBC) and US-India Strategic Partnership Forum on Wednesday to bring in another 1,000 Medtronic ICU ventilators into India.