Zoho launches Swadeshi Sankalp initiative to help ease Covid impact

Zoho Corp today launched the Swadeshi Sankalp initiative to help India’s education and government sectors cope with disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. It empowers workers with the software they need, built in India and run on Indian data centres. By using Zoho’s secure Indian data centres, education and government institutions will inherit the company’s privacy and security practices across all products, says a company press release.

As the pandemic has affected industries and communities, Zoho has altered its business priorities to focus on ways to best serve the community, the country, and the rest of the world in whatever way it is possible. The Swadeshi Sankalp initiative is one of ways to provide relief to the education and government sectors that are in need of a secure solution, Sridhar Vembu, CEO and co-founder of Zoho Corp, told newspersons in a virtual press meet — hosted via Zoho Meeting — sitting in a village near Tenkasi in southern Tamil Nadu.

Zoho will offer Classes, a new mobile app that enables schools and colleges to connect with their students online. To support the Government of India’s #BharatPadheOnline programme, Zoho will offer Classes free to all government schools in India. For all other schools, it is free for up to 100 students. Schools can annually pay ₹250 per student for additional students, the release said.

Zoho is also offering its online meetings and webinar app, Zoho Meeting, free for three months to government bodies.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration recently launched its first Covid response call centre in Srinagar. ClearWire Technologies, which runs the call centre, uses Zoho Desk, a customer support software. Zoho is now extending free licences of Zoho Desk to all the other State governments for enabling them to help citizens. Zoho Desk was built in Tenkasi, which is located in rural Tamil Nadu, the release said.