Indira IVF is Now Available in 92 Centres Across Indian Market

* Improving accessibility for couples seeking treatment for infertility

* Adds 4 new centres (Nanded, Warangal, Sirsa and Gulbarga) in the first half of FY20-21

Indira IVF, the largest player in the infertility treatment space in India, in its efforts to provide affordable and best in class treatment to couples seeking infertility treatment has added four new centers in Tier-III cities namely, Nanded, Warangal, Sirsa and Gulbarga in the first half of FY20-21. The infertility specialist clinics chain now runs 92 centres across the country helping desirous couples fulfil their dream of parenthood.

Indira IVF’s intent for their patients' wellbeing goes beyond their reproductive health, and hence, abiding by the guidelines laid by the government, the organization had shut down all their treatment centers for over two months. On June 3, 2020, Indira IVF once again opened its doors to aspiring couples, and is optimistic that the pre-COVID volume of IVF procedures will restore by December this year. Currently, all Indira IVF centers strictly adhere to government protocols of running the centers and ensures that the utmost safety standards are maintained for their staff and patients visiting the clinic. 

Speaking on the development Dr. Kshitiz Murdia-CEO, Indira IVF said, “We are living in unprecedented times and everyone is dealing with a number of challenges and uncertainties in their lives. The inability to bear children can be emotionally distressing for desirous families. Living by our vision to make infertility treatment affordable and accessible to all desirous couples, we have improved our reach by adding four more centers.”

He added, “We are witnessing a huge influx of inquiries from Tier II and Tier III cities. The growing awareness, knowledge about IVF and fertility issues has helped the sector to grow and craft a niche segment in the healthcare space. Young individuals and couples have become increasingly cognizant of their reproductive health and constitute a major share of all IVF procedures carried out at Indira IVF.”

Indira IVF today is the largest and the most recognized fertility chains of hospitals in the country. Armed with state-of-the-art infrastructure, Indira IVF helps countless couples navigate the often-complicated journey of infertility and ultimately realize their dream of starting a family.

About Indira IVF

Indira IVF is India’s largest infertility speciality clinics chain with 92 centres across the country, supported by a passionate workforce of over 2200 people. Indira IVF performs about 31,000+ IVF procedures a year – the highest number in the country.

As a responsible leader, Indira IVF constantly strives to dispel the stigma, taboo, myths and misinformation about infertility. Indira IVF is also committed to developing and grooming talent for fertility treatments. Through the Indira Fertility Academy it collaborates with like-minded organisations and institutions to further this cause. Having perceived the potential of Indira IVF in the sector, TA Associates, a leading global equity firm from the U.S., invested in the organisation in 2019.

Indira IVF was founded in the year 2011 in Udaipur, Rajasthan by Dr Ajay Murdia.

upGrad Enrols 350+ Learners for its 1st Cohort of LL.M. Program; Most Successful Batch Launch Till Date

upGrad, India’s largest online higher education company, wraps admissions for the first cohort of LL.M. in Corporate and Financial Law, blended learning in partnership with Jindal Global Law School. It is ranked as India’s No.1 Law School by the prestigious QS Ranking 2021. upGrad is now the only edtech major to introduce a first-of-its-kind LL.M program in India through blended learning for tomorrow’s legal professionals. The program has secured enrolments from over 360 learners for the first cohort, thereby booking revenue of ₹ 11 crore without having to offer any special scheme during the admission cycle.

Learners on-board carry strong profiles with an average of 4 years of work experience in top corporate law firms, in-house counsel, independent practitioners, and litigators in high court & Supreme Court who are looking forward to climbing up the ladder in their professional career through the dynamic law program. Learners from across 85 law schools have enrolled under this program from across the country including tier I, II, and III cities/regions.

Commenting on the announcement Phalgun Kompalli, Co-founder, upGrad said: “This is a breakthrough moment for us. We are delighted to partner with Jindal Global Law School to aid towards upskilling and help seasoned professionals to navigate through the ever-changing business environment. Our program structure will enable learners to continuously evolve and develop accurate subject knowledge to attain a desired professional outcome. As COVID-19 has already fast-tracked the edtech sector, the introduction of such a blended online learning program will now help professionals/individuals convert the parked upskilling programs.”

From being a Data dominated company, upGrad has massively diversified its portfolio of online programs with strong additions on Tech & MBAs in the past few months and the introduction of Law is another milestone achieved.

About upGrad:

upGrad is India’s largest online higher education company. Founded in early 2015, upGrad has on-boarded over 34.5K paid learners and impacted around 8 lakh individuals globally, within a short span of 5 years.

upGrad provides online programs in the areas of Data Science, Technology, Management and Law to college students, working professionals and enterprises. These programs are designed and delivered in collaboration with top-notch universities like IIT Madras, IIIT Bangalore, MICA, NMIMS Global Access, Jindal Global Law School, Duke CE, Deakin University, Liverpool John Moores University and others.

With an 80% program completion rate, robust tech platform, outcome-based learning approach, industry-relevant curriculum, finest university credentials, strong mentorship, and steadfast placement support, upGrad has established its position as the leader in the Indian education system.

upGrad Elevate, a virtual hiring drive for upGrad users/alumni offers the opportunity to interview with 300+ hiring partners ensuring successful career outcomes they deserve.

IIIT Bangalore and upGrad's PG Diploma in Data Science is India’s first-ever PG Diploma to be recommended and validated by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM). The program is India's largest Data Science program with over 10,000 alumni & learner-base, which now provides learners with certification from NASSCOM FutureSkills, thereby making the program aligned to Government approved National Occupational Standards (NOS) to facilitate the upskilling of India’s IT workforce and make them abreast of the new-age skills. Through this first-of-its-kind collaboration, upGrad joins NASSCOM’s mission to make India a hub for innovation and a global hotspot for a skilled talent pool.

upGrad has ranked No.1 in the #LinkedInTopStartups 2020 list. This is the third time in a row that upGrad has been featured in the #LinkedInTopStartup list. upGrad has been awarded the title of ‘Best Tech for Education’ by IAMAI in 2019. Also, received the ‘Best Education Brands’ award by Economic Times in 2018, and Most Innovative Companies in India' by Fast Company in 2017.

Omidyar Network India Announces ‘Digital Society Challenge’ Aimed at Innovators Addressing Online Risks

Omidyar Network India, an investment firm focused on social impact, today announced a call for proposals for innovations to help Indians cope better with online risks. The program will fund the most creative and scalable proposals aimed at the next half billion (NHB), i.e. the 500m low and lower-middle-income Indians coming online between 2017 and 2022.

Shilpa Kumar, Investment Partner at Omidyar Network India, said “India is digitizing rapidly, especially since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis. The internet helps us address the development needs of the country faster, better, and cheaper. To consolidate these gains, we need better privacy, protection from cybercrimes, recourse from frauds, and authentic information online. Such efforts will help build individual trust and pave the way for India’s digital deepening. This is why we are launching the Digital Society Challenge to support entrepreneurs in tackling this issue through creative and innovative ideas.”

What type of innovations will be considered?

The challenge will shortlist tech and non-tech innovations that directly impact individuals, especially, the NHB. e.g. apps or digital training programs for users and data management platforms for non-profit organizations. 

The challenge is sector agnostic as long as the solution addresses one or more online risks such as privacy, cybersecurity, misinformation, or digital exclusion of vulnerable groups (e.g. elderly, disabled). The innovation can be at any stage right from being a concept to a minimum viable product or a locally-implemented solution and even scaled-up innovation.

Who can apply?

The challenge is inviting proposals from three categories of applicants. Start-ups can apply for equity investments, and non-profits can apply for grants to undertake projects or strengthen their organizations. Organizations that provide services to clients can also apply for service contracts to execute their ideas.

Selection Criteria: 

Reach – the solution should reach and empower a large segment of Indians, especially those in the NHB

Depth of Impact – the solution should have a deep impact on the lives it touches

Innovation – the solution should have either tech or non-tech innovation that meaningfully strengthens online safety 

Application Timelines:

The call for proposals will end on 23 October 2020. The shortlisting of applicants will happen on a rolling basis, and applicants are therefore advised to apply early.

Where to Apply: 

More details and the application form can be found on www.digitalsociety-india.com 

About Omidyar Network India

Omidyar Network India invests in bold entrepreneurs who help create a meaningful life for every Indian, especially the hundreds of millions of Indians in low-income and lower-middle-income populations, ranging from the poorest among us to the existing middle class. To drive empowerment and social impact at scale, we work with entrepreneurs in the private, non-profit, and public sectors, who are tackling India’s hardest and most chronic problems. We make equity investments in early-stage enterprises and provide grants to nonprofits in the areas of Digital Identity, Education, Emerging Tech, Financial Inclusion, Governance & Citizen Engagement, and Property Rights. Omidyar Network India is part of The Omidyar Group, a diverse collection of companies, organizations, and initiatives, supported by philanthropists Pam and Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay.

Trend Micro Study Finds 42% of Indian Employees Access Corporate Data on Personal Devices

 

Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), the leader in cloud security, today released survey results that show smart home devices and their apps represent a major weak link in the corporate cybersecurity chain as the lines between work and home life increasingly blur.  

Trend Micro’s Head in the Clouds study surveyed more than 13,000 remote workers across 27 countries to find out more about the habits of distributed workforces during the pandemic. It revealed that 42% of workers in India use personal devices to access corporate data, often via services and applications hosted in the cloud. These personal smartphones, tablets and laptops may be less secure than corporate equivalents and exposed to vulnerable IoT apps and gadgets on the home network. Over one third (37%) of remote workers surveyed do not have basic password protection on all personal devices, for example. 

Dr Linda K. Kaye, a cyberpsychology expert said: "The fact that so many remote workers use personal devices for accessing corporate data and services suggests that there may be a lack of awareness about the security risks associated with this. Tailored cybersecurity training which recognises the diversity of different users and their levels of awareness and attitudes around risks would be beneficial to help mitigate any security threats which may derive from these issues." 

More than half (57%) of Indian remote workers have IoT devices connected to their home network, 12% using lesser-known brands, the study revealed. Many such devices – especially from smaller brands – have well-documented weaknesses such as unpatched firmware vulnerabilities and insecure logins. These could theoretically allow attackers to gain a foothold in the home network, then use unprotected personal devices as a stepping-stone into the corporate networks they’re connected to.  

There’s an additional risk to enterprise networks post-lockdown if malware infections picked up at home are physically brought into the office via unsecured personal devices at organizations with bring-your-own-device (BYOD) practices. 

The research also revealed that 81% of remote workers in India connect corporate laptops to the home network. Although these machines are likely to be better protected than personal devices, there is still a risk to corporate data and systems if users are allowed to install unapproved applications on these devices to access home IoT devices. 

“IoT has empowered simple devices with computing and connectivity, but not necessarily adequate security capabilities,” said Nilesh Jain, Vice President, Southeast Asia and India, Trend Micro. “They could actually be making hackers’ lives easier by opening backdoors that could compromise corporate networks. This threat is amplified as an age of mass remote work blurs the lines between private and company devices, putting both personal and business data in the firing line. Now more than ever, it is important that individuals take responsibility for their cybersecurity and that organisations continue to educate their employees on best practices.” 

Trend Micro recommends employers ensure their remote workers are compliant with existing corporate security policies, or, if needed, companies should refine these rules to recognise the threat from BYOD practice and IoT devices and applications.  

Companies should also reappraise the security solutions they offer to employees using home networks to access corporate information. Shifting to a cloud-based security model can alleviate many remote working risks in a highly cost-efficient and effective manner. 

Cost, Complexity and Compliance: Clumio Addresses Enterprise All-Cloud Needs Amidst COVID Challenges

 

Clumio, innovators of authentic SaaS for enterprise backup, today announced increased demand for its “all cloud” enterprise data protection service in 2020, with an eight-time increase in the number of its platform customers protecting more than one data source across private cloud, public cloud and SaaS compared to seven months ago. Clumio has tripled its employee headcount, hiring more than 50 percent of its total company roster during the pandemic. The company has expanded from protecting one to four data sources, including AWS EC2, EBS and RDS, VMware Cloud on AWS and Microsoft 365 – the first service of its kind on a single platform. Enterprises choose Clumio for its innovative air-gap backup service for public cloud and SaaS. Clumio, unlike any legacy product, frees companies from the burden of managing data protection. Clumio continues to advance company, product and industry innovation throughout 2020 by solving the cost, complexity and compliance problems that are inhibiting enterprises from getting to the cloud faster.

Clumio has responded to rapidly increasing customer demand for all-encompassing data protection with an easy-to-onboard service that safeguards against ransomware and data loss. The company has redefined the enterprise backup experience with the industry’s first “born in the cloud” data protection offering for long-term retention and compliance of AWS native services. Clumio scales on demand, has predictable pricing – including a free tier for operational recovery – and is simple to manage.

“Remote work and a major uptick in SaaS and cloud use has escalated potential ransomware threats. Now, more than ever, our customers are realizing the value of a cloud-native data protection platform - a platform that arms them to fight today’s data protection challenges,” said Poojan Kumar, CEO and co-founder, Clumio. “Other industry players can’t deliver Clumio’s ‘built natively in the public cloud,’ always-on, always-covered data protection. The fact that Snowflake Computing CRO Chris Degnan joined Clumio’s board - combined with support from Snowflake investor Mike Speiser of Sutter Hill Ventures - further validates our mission; we, like Snowflake, are tapping the scale, elasticity and economics of the public cloud to disrupt and redefine our market.”

Clumio, committed to removing cloud barriers so enterprises can achieve their cloud-related technology goals, continues to deepen its partnership with Amazon. The company’s enterprise backup as a service is built on native AWS services, meaning customers can take full advantage of the flexibility, scalability and economics AWS provides - without needing to rely on incomplete snapshot managers or build a solution on their own. Clumio’s data protection for Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service) workloads is the first data protection service for long-term retention of AWS native services. Clumio protects EC2, EBS and RDS for operational recovery, data recovery, and long-term retention, dramatically reducing companies’ costs and security risks as they accelerate to the cloud.

The company has just achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Outposts Ready designation, which differentiates Clumio as an AWS Partner Network (APN) member with a product fully tested on AWS Outposts. Clumio has also distinguished itself as an AWS Partner Network member by earning AWS Storage Competency status, validating the company’s deep domain expertise in core storage categories including backup and recovery.

“We vetted several options and Clumio came out on top as the only solution that could reduce our costs and remove the complexity of managing and protecting data in the cloud. Now we can focus our resources on more strategic initiatives,” said Dennis Yang, CIO at Motion Picture Association. “Clumio’s ability to innovate and deliver is unmatched.”

"We have always taken the necessary precautions to reduce our risk of ransomware attacks across multiple sites, but that often came with a high cost," said Chris Blazejewicz, manager of IT at Lakeside Process Controls. "When I was introduced to Clumio, I saw the value right away. Now we protect Microsoft 365 and VMware with a single service and have a secure air-gap for our backups to protect us from bad actors."

Clumio continues to evolve SaaS backup for the all cloud enterprise with a seamless public cloud backup service that enables companies to get to the cloud faster. The company delivers a unified backup solution that protects public cloud, private cloud and SaaS with a single service for VMware, VMware Cloud on AWS, Amazon EC2, Amazon EBS, Amazon RDS and Microsoft 365. This single service provides companies with always-on security, fast, intuitive restores and effortless compliance - along with air-gap data protection that enables recovery from data loss and ransomware. In fact, Clumio is the only “air-gapped” service for protecting public cloud applications outside of customer accounts. The Clumio platform is built in the cloud and for the cloud, providing the agility and scale of the public cloud with a simple, intuitive “as a service” offering. The continually updated platform consolidates operational recovery, backup and compliance requirements  - all with predictable costs and proactive support.

Clumio has marked the following corporate, customer and product-related milestones so far during 2020:

Corporate

Increased employee headcount by 70 percent, to 179 total employees.

Hired more than 50 percent of employee headcount during the pandemic.

Launched the Clumio Research and Development Center in Bengaluru, with plans to tap into local tech talent to double the company workforce in India by the end of 2020.

Launched operations in Canada, meaning Canadian companies – for the first time – have access to a simplified and cost-effective enterprise backup service that provides scale, flexible economics and inherent elasticity, while protecting the data within the borders of Canada.

Customers

Featured new customers include Cole Scott & Kissane (law), Rush Memorial Hospital, Infogix (data governance and management), Lakeside Process Controls, InTown Suites (hospitality), Frogslayer (cloud IT consultancy), and Point Loma Nazarene University.

Selected by and continuing to gain traction with customers who commend Clumio’s “easy” UI and “set it and forget it” simplicity, as well as proactive customer support that includes automated, continuous, 24/7 real-time monitoring.

Product

Clumio, with the addition of Microsoft 365 to its secure backup as a service, has delivered on its all cloud vision with the first private, public and SaaS enterprise data protection service on a single platform. Now, with Clumio, organizations running Microsoft 365 have a globally consolidated data protection service. Clumio allows Microsoft 365 users to quickly and easily set their backup policies to meet data retention requirements, monitor progress, and easily restore their data at the email, folder, or mailbox level. Future updates include extending support for Microsoft 365 beyond Exchange to OneDrive and SharePoint support later in 2020.

Announced industry’s first data protection service for long-term retention and compliance for Amazon RDS, including a free tier for operational recovery. Clumio now allows customers to address operational recovery, data recovery and long-term retention -- all with a single service. Companies can slash up to 50 percent off their snapshot spend and can stop paying competitors for snapshot orchestration altogether with the free tier in Clumio.

Added Rolling Backup Protection for Amazon RDS, a product capability that includes a time-lagged standby copy of an RDS database securely stored in Clumio. The rolling backup is an essential add-on feature that enables administrators to do a full restore from the time-lagged standby copy in the event of a ransomware attack on the database or an account compromise.

Introduced Backup as a Service for AWS EC2/EBS, expanding Clumio’s functionality and flexibility within AWS. Users now have more options to protect their data, including consistent protection at various granularities from EBS to EC2, operational simplicity with unified policies, as well as cost-effective, air-gapped protection at up to 50 percent lower costs compared to AWS snapshots.

Added Extended Retention and Granular Record Retrieval for Amazon RDS, a simple, easy-to-use solution to help organizations adhere to regulatory requirements, company policies, and compliance mandates. Clumio helps these companies retain backup data for long durations, ensuring they can easily retrieve the data when needed. Granular backups can be taken weekly, monthly, and yearly and can be retained for seven years.

Partner

Achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) Storage Competency status for enterprise backup solutions. Clumio is one of the youngest companies to earn this designation, recognizing the company’s ability to help customers successfully achieve their storage goals on AWS.

Earned the AWS Outposts Ready designation, part of the AWS Service Ready Program, validating that Clumio has demonstrated successful integration with AWS Outposts deployments.

Certifications

Earned industry certifications and compliance for ISO 27001, SOC2 Type 1, HIPAA, and PCI/DSS Level 4.

Awards and Accolades

CRN “Emerging Vendors 2020” Award

CRN “Software Defined Data Center 2020” Award

CRN 2020 “Data Center 50” Award

VMworld “Best of Show” Award

VMworld Gold Award in Data Protection

Storage Magazine “Product of the Year” finalist

Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 2020 “Best Places to Work”

Additional Resources

●          See upcoming webinars and events

●          Learn How Clumio is Reimagining Enterprise Backup

●          Read our Blogs

●          Follow us on Twitter

About Clumio

Clumio is the innovator of authentic SaaS for enterprise backup. Using this secure service, organizations eliminate hardware and software for on-premise backup and avoid the complexity and cost of running third-party backup software in the cloud. As enterprises move aggressively to cloud, they use Clumio to protect workloads like VMware Cloud on AWS, AWS native services and SaaS. Born in the public cloud, Clumio can leverage the most modern cloud services to ensure it meets the current and future backup requirements of the most demanding enterprises. For more information, visit: www.clumio.com.

Mirchi and TimesJobs Launch National Campaign to Help People Get Hired in COVID-19 Crisis

* Mirchi and TimesJobs recently announced a national campaign of the popular CSR campaign – Baat Baat Pe Jobs - where both brands jointly help professionals find appropriate jobs quickly

* TimesJobs has roped in 202 recruiters to help job seekers get hired in a span of 3 weeks

* More than 4,475 jobs are available from all domains, including IT, Banking, Marketing and Retail

* Mirchi RJs from Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru are anchoring this campaign on radio

The season 3 of TimesJobs and Mirchi’s hiring focussed CSR campaign ‘Baat Baat Pe Jobs’ was launched nationally with a focus on key cities - Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru.

‘Baat Baat Pe Jobs’ has been curated to help professionals whose jobs have been impacted due to COVID-19.

In December 2019, TimesJobs and Mirchi collaborated for the first time to launch a recruitment centric CSR campaign called ‘ReadySteadyJobs’. This campaign caught everyone’s attention as it helped more than a thousand candidates get hired in a sluggish economy.

With the same enthusiasm, a re-branded season 2 was launched in Delhi-NCR in July 2020 to bring hope to job seekers amid the COVID-19 crisis. More than 1 lakh job seekers uploaded their CVs for the jobs posted by 160+ recruiters. This edition helped more 670 professionals find jobs and 2,399 get shortlisted in just 27 days! Mirchi Delhi RJs Naved, Rochie, Vidit, Leen and Sayema were the campaign’s torchbearers as they spoke to job seekers, hiring managers and recruiters - show after show – and ensured that the word reached every job seeker.

In season3, the number of recruiters has grown to 202, comprising of 38 companies and 164 hiring consultants. Companies include top names as OPPO, WhiteHat Jr, Berger, BMC Software, Mastercard, Capgemini among others. Together, these recruiters have posted 4,475 jobs from all domains as IT, Manufacturing, Banking & Finance and Sales & Marketing. There are 136 jobs for international locations too. 

Mirchi RJs from Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai radio stations are anchoring this campaign and guiding the job seekers on how to find jobs through this campaign, and most importantly how to be job-ready!

Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig lauded the campaign’s national launch and said, “At ‘Baat Baat Pe Jobs’ - both Mirchi and TimesJobs are combining their synergies and reach to help job seekers across India. With this campaign, we want to give a simple message - hiring is happening, companies are recruiting competent professionals and there’s still hope! We have 202 active recruiting agencies and companies on board, with 4,475 jobs where candidates can apply and get hired quickly”.

Sudipta Suri, National Marketing Head, Radio Mirchi said “We received good feedback for the first two seasons of ‘Baat Baat Pe Jobs’ and wanted to take the campaign national. The current pandemic has left many people jobless and to help people find jobs again is a great way to make our listeners ‘Khush’! Now live in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai, the campaign is being spearheaded by our RJs who are utilising not only radio but also social media extensively to spread the word about companies hiring. Such a campaign at these times is great use of Mirchi’s leadership position in reach and we are very happy to have partnered with TimesJobs in this CSR initiative.”

Spreading Immunization Awareness in Rural India is a Must: N Mehta

By Neeraj Mehta, CEO, ImmunifyMe

The immunization program in India has superbly comprehensive schedules to ensure a disease free healthy life for the future citizens of the country. The immunization schedule to be delivered from the birth of the child until 16 years of age offers all-rounded protection from life threatening and debilitating keeping the country’s health profile and environmental risk factors in mind. We guess that's enough as India’s small, steady but measured footsteps towards a disease free childhood and life has enabled the nation to be declared Polio-free today. It is definitely a feat of delight and intense pride. After all it is not easy to chase all the babies in a country as large as India where literacy amongst parents is relatively low and belief in vaccinations is not high either. 

‘Rural India in relatively unaware of preventive medical care and apprehensive of it’

According to the National Health Mission, ‘the immunization programme is one of the key interventions for protection of children from life threatening conditions, which are preventable. It is one of the largest immunization programs in the world and a major public health intervention in the country’. It was introduced in 1978 under the Expanded programme of Immunization (EPI). This led to the Universal Immunization Program (UIP) which covered all districts in a phased manner by 1990. This program grew to be a part of the Child Survival and Safe Motherhood Program in 1992. Since then the immunization schedule has been an important mission to accomplish in the National Rural Health Mission (NHRM) since 2005. 

The Universal Immunization Program, Government of India provides vaccination to prevent seven vaccine preventable diseases i.e. Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Polio, Measles, severe form of Childhood Tuberculosis and Hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib) and Diarrhoea. 

Basics vaccinations which every child born in this country should receive include three polio vaccines, three doses of DPT (diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) and tetanus) vaccine, one dose of measles and one dose of BCG that offers protection from tuberculosis. 

An interesting report by IndiaSpend in 2019 reports that poor families aspen more on health expenditures arising off preventable diseases in children due to lack of immunization. According to national health data 2019, almost 47% of the poorest children in India are not fully immunized. The lack of health insurance makes the situation worse as 78% of the families in India are uninsured which means that they are required to spend from their own pocket for health concerns and contingencies pushing more families below the poverty line every year. This data highlights the need for awareness and rectification of misinformation as the key challenges to be dealt with. 

Rural India faces its own set of reasons to oppose vaccinations to children,

Lack of awareness of the benefits of vaccinations: Due to the lower levels of basic education the rural population is relatively unaware of the benefits of vaccinations. Also, families are aware about some vaccines like polio and BCG. At times they agree for the delivery of the vaccines they are aware of and not the newer vaccines that they are oblivious about. This leads to a child not being fully immunized. 

Lack of awareness of the dangers of preventable fatal and debilitating diseases: Even upon delivering vaccinations people in rural areas do not believe in preventive care as a result of which they lack information regarding diseases that can be prevented with due vaccinations. They believe in curing diseases when they strike, not in early prevention before the disease is diagnosed.

Misinformation regarding side effects of vaccinations: The rural populace is often discouraged with immunization due to side effects like fever. They feel that vaccinations cause illness rather than prevent them. 

Lack of authority of parents: In smaller towns and cities the grandparents of the child have great control over household matters and the wellbeing of the child is often under their jurisdiction. The older population does not believe in vaccines; they argue that they did not relieve them and hence they are unnecessary. Mothers often have to ask their mother-in-laws if she can get her child vaccinated. 

Religious reasons: Minor castes believe that vaccinations reduce the fertility rates lowering chances of grandchildren for them. 

These are long standing issues that have been since the immunization program started. ‘Government immunization programs have been carried out for 30 years, yet, according to the data immunization coverage grew at the rate of 1 percentage point per year. India’s vaccination coverage grew from 35% in 1992-93 to 62% in 2015-16. Only 16 districts in India have coverage of over 90%, according to a January 2019 report of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). 

There are trained ASHA (accredited social health activists) and anganwadi workers for social preparation and organization. There has been a stark shift in the delivery of awareness programs from explaining the danger of the diseases rather than the benefits. Instilling a little fear of a disease has shown higher chances of families agreeing to follow immunization schedules. A negative story always has more impact. 

In entirety, the gaps of success in rural immunization programs are largely related to effective awareness and education, contrary to educated urban families. This is the gap that needs to close. According to me, “A well immunized country is the most cost-effective way of improving living standard health and economic prospects of its population. India needs to implement new technologies to find the children who have not received any or some doses of vaccines to break the chain of unvaccinated children reducing chances of global pandemics”.

ImmunifyMe is a cloud-based eco-system complete with a web interface, mobile app and a smart card helps improve vaccination vigilance systems to ensure up-to-date data important to close the current immunization gap. ImmunifyMe will assist in achieving these agendas by locating the children who miss essential life-saving vaccines. 

Irrespective to the efforts taken by technology; social restriction, ideas and thoughts of rural India cannot be changed. The government needs to continue to take efforts to change the mindset gripping the rural regions regarding immunization in India. And, this can only happen through concentrated efforts delivering effective and specific awareness.