Work from home: Govt asks Bescom, ISPs to provide better services

All employees in the IT-BT sector, except those discharging critical and essential services, should strictly adhere to the work-from-home policy to reduce transmission of Covid-19. The government has written to Bescom and internet service providers (ISPs) to ensure uninterrupted power supply and connectivity respectively for this purpose.

These were the measures announced by Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan during his meeting with heads of various IT, BT and start-up firms on measures to contain the viral pandemic.

Chairperson of IT Vision Group Kris Gopalkrishnan, Chairperson and Managing Director of Biocon, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Nasscom chairperson Debajani Ghosh and others took part in the meeting held through video conferencing. The meeting also discussed the possibilities of locally developing test kits and an app to provide care for those who are infected or under quarantine.

The other guidelines issued to the companies included - developing policies and procedures for employees to report when they are sick or experiencing symptoms; maintaining flexible leave policies that permit employees to self-quarantine; identification and isolation of potential infectious individuals and to advise older employees, pregnant employees and those with underlying medical conditions to take extra precautions.

During the meeting, Kiran Mazumdar suggested a separate hospital for the prevention and control of such epidemics. “Industry will support and provide the necessary assistance using CSR funds,” she said.

Medical expert Dr K N Shridhar said that currently test kits were being imported for disease detection and they were being developed indigenously with the help of Indian Institute of Science. He added that such kits would be made available soon.