THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In what could be termed a relief for the state government at the time of crisis, techies working in many IT companies in various IT parks in the state voluntarily came forward to help the government machinery for providing technical assistance to combat the Covid-19 threat.
On the basis of the request made by the District Medical Officer in Thiruvananthapuram, 10 software engineers have chipped in to help them in terms of developing mobile apps, software and other voluntary assistance to the state health department. They will be working at DMO office until the threat of the disease ends.
On Friday, a meeting was convened by agricultural director K Vasuki with the techie volunteers to associate with the government for developing IT services to connect farmers, sellers and consumers at the time of lockdown. The techies will develop an app so that the consumers and farmer won’t suffer.
“An initial discussion was held. We are working out to develop the service as soon as possible. We will form a team soon from the Technopark itself and a road map will be created,” said Rajeev Krishnan, secretary, Prathidhwani, socio-cultural welfare organisation of techies.
Similarly, the state police will organise a hackathon soon in the state for developing IT products to contain the Covid-19 spread. Several techies from Technopark have also shown willingness to participate in the event. The last date for the application is on March 29. “ From Technopark itself, many techies have evinced interest to work with the Cyberdome of state police. The hackathon will be held; remotely to avoid gatherings,” an officer with the Cyberdome said.
The District Disaster Management Authority also formed an Inter-Agency Group (IAG) which have the volunteers from various IT companies.