India:The Wadhwani Foundation recently launched Sahayata Initiative to help public health workers improve COVID-19 knowledge and skills and provide innovative grants to upto 50 start-ups and early-stage companies to help accelerate innovation in public health technology in India. The Wadhwani Foundation is a leading non-profit Foundation serving India and other developing countries with the mission of accelerating job creation through large scale initiatives in entrepreneurship, SME growth, and skilling.
Wadhwani Foundation has committed INR 200 Crore and is building an ecosystem of partners, including government ministries and agencies, banks, and consulting firms, to help operationalize this large and complex initiative. The Sahayata Initiative consists of three programs: the Sahayata Business Stability program, the Sahayata COVID-19 Skilling program, and the Sahayata Public Health Innovation program. The Foundation built all three Sahayata programs over the last 90 days. Rapid deployment will begin in August 2020.
Sahayata COVID-19 Skilling Program: In addition to physicians and nurses at city hospitals and clinics, India’s public health infrastructure includes almost three million Asha and Anganwadi workers, home health workers, and nurses’ aides, as well as police and other volunteers. All are a crucial part of the public health response to COVID-19. However, most have limited access to needed knowledge to protect themselves and diagnose and care for COVID-19 patients. Information on the World Health Organization and other government websites is often difficult to find, understand, or use. The Sahayata COVID-19 Skilling program provides essential information in an interactive video format through a variety of digital channels. Basic information on COVID-19 will be available on a dedicated YouTube channel. Additional information, including interactive Q&A and knowledge testing, will be provided via WhatsApp. Even more detailed skilling content and certification will be available on the Wadhwani Foundation’s digital platform/portal and through other partners and government portals, such as iGot. The program will launch in August with an initial goal of skilling 5,000 existing and new public health workers per month and increasing to 50,000 per month, ultimately serving 500,000 to one million existing and new health workers.
Sahayata Public Health Innovation Program: The COVID-19 crisis has shown how unprepared countries are in dealing with a pandemic. Most countries underinvest in public health infrastructure, and this hobbles rapid response in a crisis. An enormous opportunity for innovation in public health exists, especially using today’s new digital technologies, including telemedicine, real-time diagnostics and testing, and patient monitoring and care. Much of this necessary innovation will come from start-ups and early-stage companies that struggle to find sufficient venture capital to achieve their mission. The Sahayata Public Health Innovation program will provide innovation grants or investments to up to 50 start-ups and early-stage companies to help accelerate innovation in public health technology in India. Each award will be between INR 25 lakhs to INR 1 Crore. The Wadhwani Foundation has already made several direct and indirect grants; the number of candidate companies for such grants and investments is growing rapidly.
