India's Smart Cities Get Primed To Fight Covid-19 With Tech Innovations

The availability of the Bengaluru Smart City COVID War Room was announced in a press statement issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The central government’s housing department has compiled the steps taken up by smart cities like Vadodara, Kalyan-Dombivali, Agra, Kakinada and Chandigarh to effectively tackle the Covid-19 solutions. The app and the website allows local residents to book appointments with a healthcare professional, who will be available from 10 AM to 12 PM from Monday to Saturday. Agra lockdown monitor app will be available to all thana in-charges and any other police personnel as required,” the press note added. Besides this, the administration has divided the city into four zones — red, orange, yellow and green — as part of a strategy to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, Kalyan Dombivali in Maharashtra has been reaching out to residents through awareness videos published on their social media handles. Besides this, the social media handles also schedules daily activities like Yoga, culinary art, aerobics, poetry and more between 7:00 am to 9:00 pm. Meanwhile, it as also launched an interactive voice response service (IVRS) with the government of Tamil Nadu for people with feature phones. The government has also set up a committee to revamp the Aarogya Setu app and incorporate AI and machine learning tools. Meanwhile, NITI Aayog has also set up a committee to find healthtech solutions to keep India’s healthcare system future-ready if the situation were to get worse.