Corporate Citizen Claps For The Google Doodle Creative Series That Has Periodically Lauded Frontline Line Workers In The Wake Of The Corona Crisis

Continuing with its popular Gifs (animated graphics), the platform has recently tuned to thank ‘Corona Warriors’, globally. Google shared its second doodle that expressed gratitude towards Corona warriors in a new avatar. Google Doodle expressed a big ‘Thank You’ to coronavirus helpers. The most recent animation also features chefs, teachers, doctors and sweepers amongst other professionals, who have been working tirelessly since the outbreak. The new specially designed animation depicts fireman, police officers, doctors, nurses, bureaucrats, lawyers, farmers, sweepers, chefs and public transport service providers thanking them all with a big ‘heart’ right at the centre, with smaller animated hearts as part of the new Google Doodle. The campaign’s global reach covers North America, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Morocco, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Japan, Latvia, Ireland, Estonia, France, Croatia, Italy and Serbia, among other countries. When a user hovers the cursor over the doodle, a displayed message says, “To all coronavirus workers, thank you.” Google India tweeted, “The best way to say thank you to all those on the front lines is by staying at home. Together, we will move past this. #GoogleDoodle”. In the August version, Google Doodle showcased the letters of ‘Google’ wearing masks and maintaining physical distance. In the earlier April version, the two ‘o’s in G’oogle depicted helpers who continued to deliver their services enabling survival during the tough lockdown and social distancing phases. India’s Covid-19 outbreak has surged from 50,000 in May to over 36 lakh early in September, as per the Health Ministry and has since been reporting the highest number of new coronavirus cases worldwide with an average of 90,000 cases daily. We salute Google for reinforcing faith amongst all frontline warriors of the pandemic.

Corporate Citizen Slaps The Exposé Linking 80% Of Suicides To Substance Abuse Or Alcohol Addiction, Being Rooted Outside Mega Cities

The National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) annual Accidental Death & Suicides in India (ADSI), captures suicides caused due to drug abuse and alcohol addiction, but both categorised under ‘drug abuse’. The ADSI data therefore cannot trace exact numbers of actual drug abusers or alcohol addicts, which could be much higher. The 2010 data, shows that while there were 3,343 cases of suicides reported under this category, it subsequently increased in the following years, but dipped significantly in 2014. However, in 2019, the numbers gradually increased with a reported 7,860 suicides. The highest increases were recorded in both 2016 and 2017, where the total numbers of such suicides increased by over 1500 compared to that in the preceding year. This assessment, however, is inconclusive as the higher numbers in semi-urban and rural centres could have been driven by alcohol addiction alone. But the data does validate that drug abuse and alcohol addiction are no longer an urban phenomenon. As on June 26 the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, experts raised concerns over the increase in India’s drugs’ usage as a fallout of the economic and social hardships caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In the first four months, leading to the outbreak, Punjab reported a 23% rise in the number of drug addicts registered with the state government, where 18 of the 22 districts have been identified by the NCB (Narcotics Control Bureau) as amongst the districts most impacted by substance abuse. In another development, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) estimated that about 850,000 Indians inject drugs, about 1.8 million adults and 460,000 children need help for inhalant dependencies with 7.7 million Indians requiring help for opioid dependence. The Centre had in February identified 272 districts affected by drug abuse and had unveiled a Rs.336 crore national action plan this year for a ‘Nasha Mukt Bharat’. But the current celebrity drug nexus disclosures have also opened up floodgates to the rising substance dependency across all social strata a time to weigh in increasingly ‘viral’ questions and help execute all contingency plans to rehabilitate society.