Breakthrough Global Foundation, Saurabh Gupta donate USD 1 million towards Byju's COVID efforts
NEW DELHI: Byju's on Monday said it has received USD 1 million (about Rs 7.2 crore) from the Breakthrough Global Foundation and Saurabh Gupta to support the edtech major's COVID-19 initiatives in India.
The Breakthrough Global Foundation - founded by tech investor Yuri Milner (founder of DST Global) and his wife, Julia - and DST Global Managing Partner Saurabh Gupta have been actively extending support towards combating the coronavirus pandemic around the world.
"In an effort to provide continuity of education that is so vital for the future of the country, Byju's will utilise the Foundation's funds under its social impact initiative 'Education for All' to support children who have lost their families due to COVID-19," a statement said.
With 'Education for All', Byju's will provide equal learning opportunities and empower children across the country through its tech-enabled learning programmes, it added.
"From overcoming pandemics to generating growth, India's -and all of humanity's- future depends on knowledge. The Breakthrough Global Foundation is proud to support Byju's COVID-19 initiative," Yuri Milner said.
Gupta said it is hard to overstate the benefits of unleashing India's human potential, for India and the world, and that Byju's is leveraging advances in digital education technology to do just that.
As India reels under the impact of the deadly second wave of coronavirus infections, several organisations across the spectrum have come forward to support the relief efforts.
Efforts to ramp up vaccination are also underway.
India has so far administered over 23.2 crore jabs to eligible beneficiaries.
Cloud-based software provider Salesforce announced a USD 1.1 million donation to United Way of Hyderabad, Concern India Foundation, Rise Against Hunger India and Youth for Seva to support the COVID response across India.
Salesforce's global employees giving and matching campaign through GiveIndia - which is supporting various organisations in India- has generated more than USD 1 million (including the matching by Salesforce) till date, the company said in a statement.
In addition, Salesforce partnered with HSBC and the Khosla family to deliver medical supplies to different cities across the country.
Over 6,000 oxygen concentrators and 10,000 pulse oximeters will be delivered to critical locations through partnerships with the Red Cross and GiveIndia.
"Over the last one year, we have demonstrated the power of businesses as a platform for change and the current COVID-19 crisis in India underscores how deeply interconnected we all are. The need of the hour for a future-ready India is vaccinations and I cannot emphasize enough the role of technology in the management of vaccines," Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO and Chairperson of Salesforce India, said.
Fintech firm Zaggle said it has vaccinated more than 1,000 employees of various startups along with its beneficiaries and will continue the drive in the upcoming weeks to inoculate 25,000 employees of the startup ecosystem.
Auctus, Froogal, Hyperleap are some of the companies among others that have already benefitted from this ongoing vaccination drive, it said in a statement.
Alumni of Indian Institute of Technology Madras in the country and abroad have donated more than USD 2 million towards COVID relief efforts.