United against COVID-19

India recently received its first batch of 1.5 lakh Sputnik V vaccine doses. Dr Reddy's Laboratories has tied up with the Russian Direct Investment Fund for the vaccine rollout and will distribute 125 million doses in India.

Tuesday May 04, 2021 , 3 min Read

With India in the grips of a deadly second wave of COVID-19, the rising number of cases has put immense stress on the healthcare infrastructure.

But many are coming together to help India out of this crisis. For example, PepsiCo Foundation, the philanthropic arm of PepsiCo, has partnered with SEEDS to provide over one lakh COVID-19 vaccines doses, and will also set up five COVID-19 care centres.

Meanwhile, India recently received its first batch of 1.5 lakh Sputnik V vaccine doses. Dr Reddy's Laboratories has tied up with the Russian Direct Investment Fund for the vaccine rollout and will distribute 125 million doses in India.

Sputnik V is in India 🇮🇳! Please retweet and follow us to get updates on #SputnikV in India and other countries! Together we are stronger! #IndiaGetVaccinated ✌️ pic.twitter.com/n9HyX8Wr1U
— Sputnik V (@sputnikvaccine) May 1, 2021

The Indian startup ecosystem is continuing to find ways to develop technology and infrastructure for better prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19.

Technology solution provider Staqu Technologies' AI-based video analytics platform — Joint AI Research For Video Instances And Streams (JARVIS) — is helping companies, especially those in foodtech, pharma and logistics sectors, identify people who are neglecting social distancing norms, not wearing masks, or are not adhering to COVID-19 protocols.

Read about how the Indian startup ecosystem is battling the second wave of COVID-19 here.

The Interview

While India's healthcare system on one hand has noteworthy critical outcomes, the country has a massive disease burden propelled by the lack of adequate infrastructure.

Dr Harsh Mahajan, Dr Shravan Subramanyam, and Apollo Hospitals' Preetha Reddy discuss the state of healthcare in India, the effects of the current pandemic, and how its future is shaping up.

Editor’s Pick: Techie Tuesday

Growing up, Daisy Chittilapilly always had a scientific temperament. After completing her BTech, she started working at Wipro and then moved to Cisco.

Daisy has been with Cisco for the past 16 years, leading positions across sales management in Enterprise and Commercial businesses and Strategy and Operations. Read more.

Startup Spotlight

Empowering livelihoods by strengthening rural value chains

Vamsi Udayagiri built his professional career by working on supply chains. He started Hyderabad-based startup HESA to connect Bharat with India phygitally by partnering with brands keen to promote and/or sell products or services in rural markets.

They also connect rural entrepreneurs, including farmers, to sell their products in the market. Read more.

News & Updates

Vinod Khosla has pledged $10 million for supplying medical oxygen to hospitals in India amidst an unprecedented second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

Swiggy announced that it has decided to move to a four-day work week for the month of May 2021, Girish Menon, Head of HR at Swiggy, said in an internal mail to employees.

Ola Electric is looking at taking its electric scooter to international markets, including countries like France, Italy, and Germany this fiscal, a top company executive said.

WinZO has given a complete exit to its early investor Hike with four-fold returns on the latter’s investment in May 2019. This exit transaction saw WinZO buy back Hike’s share for $12 million.

PepsiCo Foundation has partnered with NGO SEEDS to provide over one lakh vaccine doses to communities, to be administered through the local healthcare system.