Work from Home for IT, BPO companies extended till July 31: Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad
New Delhi, April 28, 2020: After video conferencing with IT ministers from different states, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that Information Technology (IT), BPO companies can allow work from home for employees till July 31. Earlier this deadline was till April 30.
Prasad, who is the Law & Justice, Communications, Electronics & Information Technology Minister of India, today interacted with the IT Ministers of all the states of India. “A very meaningful discussion was held on COVID19 challenge, tech innovations to address that and future of IT & Electronics sector. All the IT Ministers of State Governments expressed solidarity and commitment to work together as team India in our collective fight against COVID19. IT Ministers shared their best practices and innovations. To enable learning from each other and sharing of innovations, I have asked the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology to prepare a digital platform”, Prasad tweeted.
The minister said that 85 percent employees in the IT sector are doing work from home (WFH) at present. The government has given several relaxations for work from home. The norms for work from home have been relaxed. “We will aspire that work from home should become a new norm,” said Prasad.
Prasad told media persons after the meeting that Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi has suggested the development of a mobile app where the best strategies of all states to contain the Coronavirus pandemic will be shared. “The suggestion has been accepted. The National E-Governance Division (NEGD) & National Informatics Centre (NIC) will make this app in three days”, said Prasad.
The Minister praised the department for making the Arogya Setu app a success and now all Aarogya Setu apps will be linked at district levels. “Every state highly appreciated the Aarogya Setu app and shared their thoughts on it. I have assured them that a similar solution for feature phones is being developed and will be launched very soon”, the minister said.
He also lauded the Postal Department saying “Employees of India Post including the Postmen have turned into lifesaver amidst COVID19outbreak. Now they are not just delivering parcels but also transporting medicines and medical equipment including Ventilators, defibrillators, COVID19 testing kits, masks, PPEs to citizens”.
Through a graded, pro-active and pre-emptive response strategy, Government of India is taking several steps along with the States/UTs for prevention, containment and management of COVID-19. These decisions and steps are being regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level.
As of today, there are 17 districts in the country where earlier cases had come, but now no new case has been reported for the last 28 days. The number of these districts has increased by 1 (two new districts have been added whereas one has been dropped from the previous list) since yesterday. The districts that got added to the list are Kalimpong (West Bengal) & Wayanad (Kerala). The district which was removed from this list is Lakhisarai (Bihar).
As of now, 6,868 people have been cured with a recovery rate of 23.3%. A total of 29,435 people have been confirmed positive as of now for COVID-19 in India.
