Intel India commits Rs 5 crores towards key government initiatives for COVID-19 relief

Extending its support to combat the COVID-19 situation in the country, tech major Intel says it has embarked on a few key initiatives in India through collaboration with the technology ecosystem and engagements with local communities.

These include working with the government, industry, and academia on technology solutions to combat COVID-19, commitment of INR 5 crores towards key central and state government relief funds and research initiatives, and supporting affected communities through NGOs and employee volunteering efforts.

Commenting about her company's initiatives, Nivruti Rai, Country Head, Intel India and Vice President, Data Platforms Group, Intel Corporation, said Intel’s top priority is protecting the health and well-being of employees while keeping the business running for our customers and supporting the communities we operate in. "I believe technology is crucial in combating COVID-19 and our ability to help save and enrich lives through Intel technology has never been more vital. The need of the hour is to collaborate with the government, academia, research community and the larger ecosystem and work together to develop solutions for testing, treatment and containment of COVID-19.

I am also very proud of Intel India employees who have whole-heartedly pledged contributions from their salaries towards government funds for COVID-19 relief. Employees are also volunteering in their local communities distributing food kits, face masks and conducting online classes.”

Collaboration with the technology ecosystem to combat COVID-19 is on by Intel India. A multi-disciplinary team of engineers from Intel India is leveraging Intel solutions and collaborating with the ecosystem to lead high-impact tech initiatives for COVID-19.

Intel India is working with India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H)  to deploy Intel client and server solutions to help achieve faster and less expensive COVID-19 testing and coronavirus genome sequencing to understand epidemiology and AI-based risk stratification for patients with comorbidities.

Intel is also collaborating with NASSCOM to build an application ecosystem and multi-cloud backend infrastructure to enable population-scale COVID-19 diagnostics, to predict outbreaks and to improve medical care management and administration. An end-to end COVID-19 platform developed by NASSCOM’s taskforce was delivered to the Government of Telangana recently. The platform brings together solutions from multiple technology leaders and delivers more than 100 dashboards, across 30+ government and public datasets, with hundreds of thousands of data points to support the government in fighting this pandemic. Along with NASSCOM and Intel, the project taskforce for the development and delivery of this platform included participation from NASSCOM members and other companies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Fractal, Infosys, Mapbox, Microsoft, Mindtree, SAP, Sprinklr, and Wipro Limited.

Intel's commitment towards key government initiatives and support to communities are in recognizing the needs of vulnerable communities during this pandemic. Intel India has come together to extend its support with a donation of INR 5 crores towards key government initiatives for COVID-19 relief.

In addition to Intel India’s contribution towards the technology initiative with CSIR and IIIT-H, Intel India employees have pledged contributions from their salaries which would be included in Intel India’s commitment of INR 1 crore each to the PM CARES Fund, the Karnataka CM Relief Fund and the Telangana CM Relief Fund.

Intel India will be donating 50,000 face masks for frontline healthcare workers to health authorities in Karnataka and Telangana.

In an endeavor to support vulnerable communities, Intel India in collaboration with Rotary Bangalore IT Corridor Charitable Trust has provided food kits to families of migrant workers in Bengaluru as part of the “Food for Life” program.

The maker community within Intel India has come together to design 3D printed parts for PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) such as face shields, after consultation and trials with local hospitals. These 3D printed components are now being used as templates for low cost silicone molded plastic parts to be produced locally to address the shortage of PPE for healthcare workers.

Intel India employees are also engaged in volunteering activities with various NGOs involving efforts on the ground such as distribution of food kits and face masks, and conducting virtual classes for students.

The Intel Foundation has also launched a special match opportunity for employees, offering up to a total of $2 million in matching donations for COVID-19 relief efforts in countries with major Intel sites, including India. It has identified organizations and charities at the local level that are focused on providing relief to communities. The selected organizations have strategic initiatives focused on helping those impacted by offering services in education, health, community development, and economic support to people in need.

Globally, Intel has committed $50 million towards a pandemic response technology initiative and allocated $10 million in donations to support local communities during this critical time.