Tag Archives: COVID-19

Creating an app to help your community during the pandemic with Gaston Saillen #IamaGDE

Welcome to #IamaGDE - a series of spotlights presenting Google Developer Experts (GDEs) from across the globe. Discover their stories, passions, and highlights of their community work.

Gaston Saillen started coding for fun, making apps for his friends. About seven years ago, he began working full-time as an Android developer for startups. He built a bunch of apps—and then someone gave him an idea for an app that has had a broad social impact in his local community. Now, he is a senior Android developer at Distillery.

Meet Gaston Saillen, Google Developer Expert in Android and Firebase.

Photo of Gaston

Building the Uh-LaLa! app

After seven years of building apps for startups, Gaston visited a local food delivery truck to pick up dinner, and the server asked him, “Why don’t you do a food delivery app for the town, since you are an Android developer? We don’t have any food delivery apps here, but in the big city, there are tons of them.”

The food truck proprietor added that he was new in town and needed a tool to boost his sales. Gaston was up for the challenge and created a straightforward delivery app for local Cordoba restaurants he named Uh-Lala! Restaurants configure the app themselves, and there’s no app fee. “My plan was to deliver this service to this community and start making some progress on the technology that they use for delivery,” says Gaston. “And after that, a lot of other food delivery services started using the app.”

The base app is built similarly to food delivery apps for bigger companies. Gaston built it for Cordoba restaurants first, after several months of development, and it’s still the only food delivery app in town. When he released the app, it immediately got traction, with people placing orders. His friends joined, and the app expanded. “I’ve made a lot of apps as an Android engineer, but this is the first time I’ve made one that had such an impact on my community.”

He had to figure out how to deliver real-time notifications that food was ready for delivery. “That was a little tough at first, but then I got to know more about all the backend functions and everything, and that opened up a lot of new features.”

He also had to educate two groups of users: Restaurant owners need to know how to input their data into the app, and customers had to change their habit of using their phones for calls instead of apps.

Gaston says seeing people using the app is rewarding because he feels like he’s helping his community. “All of a sudden, nearby towns started using Uh-LaLa!, and I didn't expect it to grow that big, and it helped those communities.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many restaurants struggled to maintain their sales numbers. A local pub owner ran a promotion through Instagram to use the Uh-Lala! App for ten percent off, and their sales returned to pre-COVID levels. “That is a success story. They were really happy about the app.”

image of person holding a phone and an image of an app on the phone

Becoming a GDE

Gaston has been a GDE for seven years. When he was working on his last startup, he found himself regularly answering questions about Android development and Firebase on StackOverflow and creating developer content in the form of blog posts and YouTube videos. When he learned about the GDE program, it seemed like a perfect way to continue to contribute his Android development knowledge to an even broader developer community. Once he was selected, he continued writing blog posts and making videos—and now, they reach a broader audience.

“I created a course on Udemy that I keep updated, and I’m still writing the blog posts,” he says. “We also started the GDG here in Cordoba, and we try to have a new talk every month.”

Gaston enjoys the GDE community and sharing his ideas about Firebase and Android with other developers. He and several fellow Firebase developers started a WhatsApp group to chat about Firebase. “I enjoy being a Google Developer Expert because I can meet members of the community that do the same things that I do. It’s a really nice way to keep improving my skills and meet other people who also contribute and make videos and blogs about what I love: Android.”

The Android platform provides developers with state-of-the art tools to build apps for user. Firebase allows developers to accelerate and scale app development without managing infrastructure; release apps and monitor their performance and stability; and boost engagement with analytics, A/B testing, and messaging campaigns.

photo of a webpage in another language

Future plans

Gaston looks forward to developing Uh-La-La further and building more apps, like a coworking space reservation app that would show users the hours and locations of nearby coworking spaces and allow them to reserve a space at a certain time. He is also busy as an Android developer with Distillery.

Photo of Gaston on a telelvision show

Gaston’s advice to future developers

“Keep moving forward. Any adversity that you will be having in your career will be part of your learning, so the more that you find problems and solve them, the more that you will learn and progress in your career.”

Learn more about the Experts Program → developers.google.com/community/experts

Watch more on YouTube → https://goo.gle/GDE

Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn

Creating an app to help your community during the pandemic with Gaston Saillen #IamaGDE

Posted by Alicja Heisig, Developer Relations Program Manager

Welcome to #IamaGDE - a series of spotlights presenting Google Developer Experts (GDEs) from across the globe. Discover their stories, passions, and highlights of their community work.

Gaston Saillen started coding for fun, making apps for his friends. About seven years ago, he began working full-time as an Android developer for startups. He built a bunch of apps—and then someone gave him an idea for an app that has had a broad social impact in his local community. Now, he is a senior Android developer at Distillery.

Meet Gaston Saillen, Google Developer Expert in Android and Firebase.

Photo of Gaston

Building the Uh-LaLa! app

After seven years of building apps for startups, Gaston visited a local food delivery truck to pick up dinner, and the server asked him, “Why don’t you do a food delivery app for the town, since you are an Android developer? We don’t have any food delivery apps here, but in the big city, there are tons of them.”

The food truck proprietor added that he was new in town and needed a tool to boost his sales. Gaston was up for the challenge and created a straightforward delivery app for local Cordoba restaurants he named Uh-Lala! Restaurants configure the app themselves, and there’s no app fee. “My plan was to deliver this service to this community and start making some progress on the technology that they use for delivery,” says Gaston. “And after that, a lot of other food delivery services started using the app.”

The base app is built similarly to food delivery apps for bigger companies. Gaston built it for Cordoba restaurants first, after several months of development, and it’s still the only food delivery app in town. When he released the app, it immediately got traction, with people placing orders. His friends joined, and the app expanded. “I’ve made a lot of apps as an Android engineer, but this is the first time I’ve made one that had such an impact on my community.”

He had to figure out how to deliver real-time notifications that food was ready for delivery. “That was a little tough at first, but then I got to know more about all the backend functions and everything, and that opened up a lot of new features.”

He also had to educate two groups of users: Restaurant owners need to know how to input their data into the app, and customers had to change their habit of using their phones for calls instead of apps.

Gaston says seeing people using the app is rewarding because he feels like he’s helping his community. “All of a sudden, nearby towns started using Uh-LaLa!, and I didn't expect it to grow that big, and it helped those communities.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many restaurants struggled to maintain their sales numbers. A local pub owner ran a promotion through Instagram to use the Uh-Lala! App for ten percent off, and their sales returned to pre-COVID levels. “That is a success story. They were really happy about the app.”

image of person holding a phone and an image of an app on the phone

Becoming a GDE

Gaston has been a GDE for seven years. When he was working on his last startup, he found himself regularly answering questions about Android development and Firebase on StackOverflow and creating developer content in the form of blog posts and YouTube videos. When he learned about the GDE program, it seemed like a perfect way to continue to contribute his Android development knowledge to an even broader developer community. Once he was selected, he continued writing blog posts and making videos—and now, they reach a broader audience.

“I created a course on Udemy that I keep updated, and I’m still writing the blog posts,” he says. “We also started the GDG here in Cordoba, and we try to have a new talk every month.”

Gaston enjoys the GDE community and sharing his ideas about Firebase and Android with other developers. He and several fellow Firebase developers started a WhatsApp group to chat about Firebase. “I enjoy being a Google Developer Expert because I can meet members of the community that do the same things that I do. It’s a really nice way to keep improving my skills and meet other people who also contribute and make videos and blogs about what I love: Android.”

The Android platform provides developers with state-of-the art tools to build apps for user. Firebase allows developers to accelerate and scale app development without managing infrastructure; release apps and monitor their performance and stability; and boost engagement with analytics, A/B testing, and messaging campaigns.

photo of a webpage in another language

Future plans

Gaston looks forward to developing Uh-La-La further and building more apps, like a coworking space reservation app that would show users the hours and locations of nearby coworking spaces and allow them to reserve a space at a certain time. He is also busy as an Android developer with Distillery.

Photo of Gaston on a telelvision show

Gaston’s advice to future developers

“Keep moving forward. Any adversity that you will be having in your career will be part of your learning, so the more that you find problems and solve them, the more that you will learn and progress in your career.”

Learn more about the Experts Program → developers.google.com/community/experts

Watch more on YouTube → https://goo.gle/GDE

Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn

Using Machine Learning for COVID-19 helpline with Krupal Modi #IamaGDE

Welcome to #IamaGDE - a series of spotlights presenting Google Developer Experts (GDEs) from across the globe. Discover their stories, passions, and highlights of their community work.

In college, Krupal Modi programmed a robot to catch a ball based on the ball’s color, and he enjoyed it enough that he became a developer. Now, he leads machine learning initiatives at Haptik, a conversational AI platform. He is a Google Developer Expert in Machine Learning and recently built the MyGov Corona Helpdesk module for the Indian government, to help Indians around the country schedule COVID-19 vaccinations. He lives in Gujarat, India.

Meet Krupal Modi, Google Developer Expert in Machine Learning.

Image shows Krupal Modi, machine learning Google Developer Expert

GDE Krupal Modi

The early days

Krupal Modi didn’t set out to become a developer, but when he did some projects in college related to pattern recognition, in which he built and programmed a robot to catch a ball based on the color of the ball, he got hooked.

“Then, it just happened organically that I liked those problems and became a developer,” he says.

Now, he has been a developer for ten years and is proficient in Natural Language Processing, Image Processing, and unstructured data analysis, using conventional machine learning and deep learning algorithms. He leads machine learning initiatives at Haptik, a conversational AI platform where developers can program virtual AI assistants and chat bots.

“I have been there almost seven years now,” he says. “I like that most of my time goes into solving some of the open problems in the state of natural language and design.”

Image shows Krupal on stage holding a microphone giving a presentation on NLP for Chatbots

Machine learning

Krupal has been doing machine learning for nine years, and says advances in Hardware, especially in the past eight years, have made machine learning much more accessible to a wider range of developers. “We’ve come very far with so many advances in hardware,” he says. “I was fortunate enough to have a great community around me.”

Krupal is currently invested in solving the open problems of language understanding.

“Today, nobody really prefers talking with a bot or a virtual assistant,” he says. “Given a choice, you’d rather communicate with a human at a particular business.”

Krupal aims to take language understanding to a new level, where people might prefer to talk to an AI, rather than a human. To do that, his team needs to get technology to the point where it becomes a preferred and faster mode of communication.

Ultimately, Krupal’s dream is to make sure whatever technology he builds can impact some of the fundamental aspects of human life, like health care, education, and digital well being.

“These are a few places where there’s a long way to go, and where the technology I work on could create an impact,” he says. “That would be a dream come true for me.”

Image shows Krupal on stage standing behind a podium. Behind him on the wall are the words Google Developers Machine Learning Bootcamp

COVID in India/Government Corona Help Desk Module

One way Krupal has aimed to use technology to impact health care is in the creation of the MyGov Corona Helpdesk module in India, a WhatsApp bot authorized by the Indian government to combat the spread of COVID-19 misinformation. Indian citizens could text MyGov Corona Helpdesk to get instant information on symptoms, how to seek treatment, and to schedule a vaccine.

“There was a lot of incorrect information on various channels related to the symptoms of COVID and treatments for COVID,” he explains. “Starting this initiative was to have a reliable source of information to combat the spread of misinformation.”

To date, the app has responded to over 100 million queries. Over ten million people have downloaded their vaccination certificates using the app, and over one million people have used it to book vaccination appointments.

Watch this video of how it works.

Image is a graphic for MyGov Corona HelpDesk on WhatsApp. The graphic displays the phone number to contact

Becoming a GDE

As a GDE, Krupal focuses on Machine Learning and appreciates the network of self-motivated, passionate developers.

“That’s one of the things I admire the most about the program—the passionate, motivated people in the community,” Krupal says. “If you’re surrounded by such a great community, you take on and learn a lot from them.”

Advice to other developers

“If you are passionate about a specific technology; you find satisfaction in writing about it and sharing it with other developers across the globe; and you look forward to learning from them, then GDE is the right program for you.”

Building a more equitable workplace

When we established our racial equity commitments in June 2020, we started with a concerted focus on building equity with and for the Black community as part of our ongoing work to build a Google where everyone belongs. Over the past year, we’ve provided regular updates on our progress.

Through this work, we've found new ways to support all groups who have historically been underrepresented in the tech industry, and to improve our products so they work better for everyone. Here’s a look at our latest efforts.

Building a more representative workforce

We set out to improve leadership representation of Black+, Latinx+ and Native American+ Googlers in the U.S. by 30% by 2025. We’ve already reached our goal, and we’re on track to double the number of Black+ Googlers at all other levels in the U.S. by 2025.

Hiring alone isn’t enough. We’re continually investing in onboarding, progressing and retaining our underrepresented employees. This year, we ran an onboarding pilot to provide a sense of community, and targeted support and mentorship for Black new hires in the U.S., including providing an onboarding roadmap, resources and virtual seminars. New employees at the Director level were also paired with buddies in the Black Leadership Advisory Group (BLAG). We’ve seen positive feedback from this program — in fact, 80% of respondents to questions about their pilot experience said they would recommend it. We'll take what we’ve learned and roll out a six-month onboarding program for Black new hires globally early next year.

We’re building a similar program for Latino Googlers, and many of our Employee Resource Groups have worked with us to establish a Noogler Buddy program. And in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Black employees can opt in to receive one-on-one mentorship and external executive coaching during the second half of this year — regardless of tenure.

We continue to invest in fair and consistent performance reviews, promotion and pay outcomes. And we know leadership engagement is critical in this area, so all VPs are now evaluated on their leadership in support of diversity, equity and inclusion, which factors into their ratings and pay.

Ensuring our products work for everyone

We’re also continuing to build products that work for all users. Last month, we launched the Pixel 6 with an improved camera, plus face detection and editing products, which we call Real Tone — specifically to power images with more brightness, depth and detail across skin tones. And we’re continuing our work to take down videos with misinformation, removing roughly 10 million a quarter.

The call for product inclusion and equity ideas to support the Black community resulted in 80 new projects since 2020, including making a Black-owned business attribute available to merchants in the U.S. We also worked closely with the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) to unveil a new Latino-owned attribute in Google Business Profiles to help Latino-owned businesses get discovered in Google Search and Maps. We’re also creating Grow with Google digital resource centers with USHCC that will train an additional 10,000 Latino business owners on how to use digital tools to grow their business.

Creating pathways to tech

Back in June, we granted Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) $50 million in unrestricted funding so these institutions could invest in their communities and the future workforce as they see fit. For example, North Carolina A&T State University is putting $150,000 towards curriculum development in pre-college programs for aspiring science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students. Morgan State University has dedicated $1 million to computer science operations, which includes new ideation lab spaces and equipment enhancements. Additionally, as part of our $15 million investment in the Latino community, we’re providing a $1 million grant to Hispanic Federation to help Latino-led and Latino-serving nonprofits train more than 6,000 individuals in career-aligned digital skills over the next year.

We’ve also partnered with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities and Partnership with Native Americans to bring digital skills and workforce training to HBCUs, Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and Native Serving Organizations (NSOs) through the Grow with Google Career Readiness program. In total, Google has committed to training more than 250,000 Black, Latino and Indigenous students by 2025. And through Grow with Google: Black Women Lead, we’re providing 100,000 Black women with career development and digital skills training by spring 2022.

We're also expanding the paths to technology outside the U.S. For example, in Brazil, we launched the second class of Next Step, an internship program exclusively for Black students that removes the prerequisite for English.

Providing opportunities for economic advancement

Last year, we announced a goal to spend $100 million with Black-owned suppliers, as part of our broader supplier diversity commitment to spend more than $1 billion with diverse-owned suppliers in the U.S. every year. To date, we’ve paid out nearly $1.1 billion to diverse-owned suppliers, exceeding our $1 billion goal for 2021. We are also on track to meet our $100 million commitment toward Black-owned suppliers for 2021.

We continue to offer resources for Black-owned businesses through programs like the Google Storefront Kits program, which provides small businesses with free Google Nest and Pixel devices, alongside free installation and Grow with Google online training. In the first 60 days of the program, we donated 3,000 Nest and Pixel devices to more than 550 Black-owned businesses across the U.S. We’ve updated the kits based on business owners’ feedback and aim to reach an additional 1,200 Black-owned businesses across more cities in the U.S.

Google's commitment of $185 million has enabled Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) to establish the Grow with Google Small Business Fund and OFN's Grant Program, funded by Google.org to assist Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) working with underserved small businesses. To date, over $149 million in loans and grants has been disbursed to OFN member CDFIs, including $50 million to support Black-owned businesses.

We’re focusing on communities outside the United States, too. For example, in addition to the $15 million we invested in Black and Latino founders in the U.S., we’ve invested in 50 Black-owned startups in Africa, 29 Black-owned startups in Brazil and 30 Black-owned startups in Europe.

We’re also partnering with financial institutions like BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan to launch money market funds that promote racial equity. We’ve invested more than $1 billion in products that generate revenue for diverse-led financial institutions, like Loop Capital, and support programs like the One Million Black Women Initiative and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

Our racial equity work is an important part of our company-wide commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. It takes thoughtful engagement with our underrepresented employees, including the Asian and Pacific Islander, Black, Latino and Native American communities — as well as people with disabilities, those who identify as LGBTQ+ and those who come from different religious backgrounds. Through this work, we’ll build a Google where everyone belongs and more helpful products for our users and the world.

Managing harmful vaccine content on YouTube

Crafting policy around medical misinformation comes charged with inherent challenges and tradeoffs. Scientific understanding evolves as new research emerges, and firsthand, personal experience regularly plays a powerful role in online discourse. Vaccines in particular have been a source of fierce debate over the years, despite consistent guidance from health authorities about their effectiveness. Today, we're expanding our medical misinformation policies on YouTube with new guidelines on currently administered vaccines that are approved and confirmed to be safe and effective by local health authorities and the WHO.


Our Community Guidelines already prohibit certain types of medical misinformation. We've long removed content that promotes harmful remedies, such as saying drinking turpentine can cure diseases. At the onset of COVID-19, we built on these policies when the pandemic hit, and worked with experts to develop 10 new policies around COVID-19 and medical misinformation. Since last year, we’ve removed over 130,000 videos for violating our COVID-19 vaccine policies.


Throughout this work, we learned important lessons about how to design and enforce nuanced medical misinformation policies at scale. Working closely with health authorities, we looked to balance our commitment to an open platform with the need to remove egregious harmful content. We’ve steadily seen false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general, and we're now at a point where it's more important than ever to expand the work we started with COVID-19 to other vaccines. 


Specifically, content that falsely alleges that approved vaccines are dangerous and cause chronic health effects, claims that vaccines do not reduce transmission or contraction of disease, or contains misinformation on the substances contained in vaccines will be removed. This would include content that falsely says that approved vaccines cause autism, cancer or infertility, or that substances in vaccines can track those who receive them. Our policies not only cover specific routine immunizations like for measles or Hepatitis B, but also apply to general statements about vaccines.


As with our COVID guidelines, we consulted with local and international health organizations and experts in developing these policies. For example, our new guidance on vaccine side effects maps to public vaccine resources provided by health authorities and backed by medical consensus. These policy changes will go into effect today, and as with any significant update, it will take time for our systems to fully ramp up enforcement. 


There are important exceptions to our new guidelines. Given the importance of public discussion and debate to the scientific process, we will continue to allow content about vaccine policies, new vaccine trials, and historical vaccine successes or failures on YouTube. Personal testimonials relating to vaccines will also be allowed, so long as the video doesn't violate other Community Guidelines, or the channel doesn't show a pattern of promoting vaccine hesitancy. 


All of this complements our ongoing work to raise up authoritative health information on our platform and connect people with credible, quality health content and sources.


Today’s policy update is an important step to address vaccine and health misinformation on our platform, and we’ll continue to invest across the board in the policies and products that bring high quality information to our viewers and the entire YouTube community.


Posted by The YouTube Team


Find detailed information on vaccination availability near you

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a priority within our communities, vaccines remain one of our biggest protections. Nationwide vaccination drives are in full swing, and as more people look to get vaccinated, their requirements for information continue to evolve: finding vaccine availability by location, specific information about vaccination services offered, and details on appointment availability are increasingly important to know.

In March 2021, we started showing COVID-19 vaccination centers on Google, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Starting this week, for over 13,000 locations across the country, people will be able to get more helpful information about vaccine availability and appointments -- powered by real-time data from the CoWIN APIs. This includes information such as:

  • Availability of appointment slots at each center

  • Vaccines and doses offered (Dose 1 or Dose 2)

  • Expectations for pricing (Paid or Free)

  • Link to the CoWIN website for booking

Across Google Search, Maps, and Google Assistant, now find more detailed information on vaccination availability, including vaccines and doses available, appointments and more

The above information will automatically show up when users search for vaccine centers near them, or in any specific area – across Google Search, Maps and Google Assistant. In addition to English, users can also search in eight Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati, and Marathi. We will continue to partner closely with the CoWIN team to extend this functionality to all vaccination centers across India.

As people continue to seek information related to the pandemic to manage their lives around it, we remain committed to finding and sharing authoritative and timely information across our platforms.

Posted by Hema Budaraju, Director, Google Search


Extending our voluntary return to office

Our CEO, Sundar Pichai, sent the following email to Google employees earlier this morning. The email has been edited to remove internal links.

Hi Googlers,

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a humbling challenge for all of us and I continue to be impressed by the way our teams are navigating through it. In spite of these challenges, I’m happy to say that a large number of offices globally are already open for business, and we are welcoming back tens of thousands of Googlers on a voluntary basis. Given that conditions around the world are still highly variable, I wanted to share how we’re planning to approach the next few months:

  • First, as offices continue to reopen, we hope to see more teams coming together where possible, whether it be for regular team meetings, brainstorming sessions around a whiteboard, or outdoor socials. For some locations, conditions are starting to improve, yet in many parts of the world the pandemic continues to create uncertainty. Acknowledging that, we’ll extend our global voluntary return-to-office policy through January 10, 2022 to give more Googlers flexibility and choice as they ramp back. 

  • Beyond January 10, we will enable countries and locations to make determinations on when to end voluntary work-from-home based on local conditions, which vary greatly across our offices. To make sure everyone has ample time to plan, you’ll have a 30-day heads-up before you’re expected back in the office.

  • Finally, encouraging Googlers to rest and recharge during this time remains a big priority so we will plan two more global reset days next quarter: Oct 22 and Dec 17. 

The road ahead may be a little longer and bumpier than we hoped, yet I remain optimistic that we will get through it together. It’s heartening to see Googlers starting to come back to more offices globally. The ability to reconnect in person has been re-energizing for many of us, and will make us even more effective in the weeks and months ahead. Thanks for all the great work thus far; look forward to a busy Q4 as we continue to find new ways to be helpful to people everywhere. 

-Sundar

New support for Southeast Asia’s COVID-19 response

In many parts of Southeast Asia and beyond, the impact of COVID-19 remains severe. More than 18 months after the virus first began spreading, high caseloads and new variants are putting pressure on health systems. It’s a difficult time for people across the region, and heartbreaking for those who’ve lost loved ones.  


Vaccines offer a path to stability and recovery, and Google is working closely with governments, health authorities and nonprofits as inoculation programs roll out. But there’s also an urgent need for the equipment that health workers depend on as they battle the pandemic and care for patients on the front lines. 


Today, through our philanthropic arm, Google.org, we’re announcing a new, $2.5 million grant to help UNICEF and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) — as well as partners on the ground — scale up the COVID-19 response in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Pakistan.This will provide critical, life-saving support to the people who need it most.


In addition to funding this immediate medical response, Google.org will provide a further $5 million in ad grants so local government agencies and organizations like UNICEF can run public information campaigns — ensuring important health messages reach the widest possible audience.   


The new Google.org funds are part of Google’s broader contribution to the response to COVID across Asia-Pacific, including in Southeast Asia. In partnership with health authorities, we’re sharing the latest health information and supporting news sources people can trust. We’re also contributing in every way we can to Southeast Asia’s economic recovery, from providing small business owners and workers with digital skills training to fostering the next generation of startup founders. Through a separate Google.org grant, we’re helping ASEAN, the Asia Foundation and local nonprofits close digital divides in marginalized communities


And we continue to be humbled and inspired by the generosity of Googlers. Our global employee giving campaign — matched by Google.org and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — has helped fully vaccinate more than 1 million people globally. Here in Southeast Asia, Googlers have donated $80,000 and counting for local nonprofits’ COVID response efforts in Indonesia and Vietnam.  


We’re sending our best wishes for safety and wellbeing to everyone affected by the pandemic throughout the region. Looking ahead, we’ll keep standing with the communities we serve — and working with our partners to shape a sustainable recovery for the long term. 


Broadening our COVID-19 support in India

As the pandemic has unfolded in India, it’s been humbling and inspiring to see individuals, communities, institutions, and governments work together to manage the impact of a crisis on a scale we haven’t experienced before. Technology has played a critical role, and our focus at Google has been on making sure people have the information and tools they need to stay informed, connected, and safe.  


We have worked to surface timely and reliable health information, amplify public health campaigns, and help nonprofits get urgent support to Indians in need. In April, through our philanthropic arm Google.org, we announced grants totaling $18 million (135 Crore INR) to expand the reach of public health information campaigns and support emergency relief work. 

Today, as India slowly emerges from the crisis of the past few months, we are turning our focus to helping strengthen India’s healthcare infrastructure and workforce — especially in rural areas.

Building on our overall COVID-19 response, we are announcing new commitments to GiveIndia, PATH, Apollo Medskills and ARMMAN, focused on setting up oxygen generation plants and expanding the health workforce by strengthening COVID-19 management skills among frontline workers. 


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 totalling approximately $15 million (109 Crore INR) to GiveIndia and PATH. The two organizations will work together to oversee the oxygen program, providing project management support. PATH will identify the target locations and provide technical assistance, working with state governments and other authorities, and complete the installation of the plants. 


As part of our new commitment, Google is also investing in the efforts of Apollo Medskills to help upskill 20,000 frontline health workers through specialized training in COVID-19 management. This will complement and strengthen the stressed rural health workforce and rural health systems. 


To further bolster these efforts, Google.org will provide a $500,000 (3.6 Crore INR) grant to nonprofit ARMMAN. ARMMAN will run skilling programs for 180,000 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and 40,000 Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) in 15 Indian states. It will also set up a call center to provide additional help and advice for ASHAs and ANMs where required.

Google is proud to be supporting these organizations as they build a bigger, better-equipped healthcare workforce, help India steady itself after the pandemic’s second wave and lay the foundations for a sustainable healthcare system over the longer term.

Broadening our COVID-19 support in India

GiveIndia providing oxygen supplies to a rural hospital in India 


As the pandemic has unfolded in India, it’s been humbling and inspiring to see individuals, communities, institutions, and governments work together to manage the impact of a crisis on a scale we haven’t experienced before. Technology has played a critical role, and our focus at Google has been on making sure people have the information and tools they need to stay informed, connected, and safe.  


We have worked to surface timely and reliable health information, amplify public health campaigns, and help nonprofits get urgent support to Indians in need. In April, through our philanthropic arm Google.org, we announced grants totaling $18 million USD (135 Crore INR) to expand the reach of public health information campaigns and support emergency relief work. 


Today, as India slowly emerges from the crisis of the past few months, we are turning our focus to helping strengthen India’s healthcare infrastructure and workforce -- especially in rural areas.


Building on our overall COVID-19 response, we are announcing new commitments to GiveIndia, PATH, Apollo Medskills and ARMMAN, focused on setting up oxygen generation plants and expanding the health workforce by strengthening COVID-19 management skills among frontline workers. 


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 totalling approximately $15 million USD (109 Crore INR) to GiveIndia and PATH. The two organizations will work together to oversee the oxygen program, providing project management support — including procurement and installation of plants. PATH will identify the target locations and provide technical assistance for the project, working with state governments and other authorities, and complete the installation of the plants. 


As part of our new commitment, Google is investing in the efforts of Apollo Medskills to help upskill 20,000 frontline health workers through specialized training in COVID-19 management. This will complement and strengthen the stressed rural health workforce and rural health systems. 


To further bolster these efforts, Google.org will provide a $500,000 USD  (3.6 Crore INR ) grant to nonprofit ARMMAN. ARMMAN will run skilling programs for 180,000 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and 40,000 Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) in 15 Indian states. It will also set up a call center to provide additional help and advice for ASHAs and ANMs where required.


Google is proud to be supporting these organizations as they build a bigger, better-equipped healthcare system, help India steady itself after the pandemic’s second wave and lay the foundations for a sustainable healthcare system over the longer term. 


Posted by Sanjay Gupta, Country Head & Vice President, India