HCL Technologies, Tamil Nadu govt join hands to improve Covid-19 response

HCL is also helping improve and expand state's disaster management helpline (1070) with technological upgrades, manpower assistance and reporting mechanisms

The Tamil Nadu Government has partnered with HCL Technologies to set up a disaster management - data analytics centre to strengthen the State’s disaster management efforts in the face of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. 

HCL is also helping improve and expand the state’s disaster management helpline (1070) through technological upgrades, manpower assistance and effective reporting mechanisms, the company said in a statement on Friday.

The Disaster Management Centre of the Government of Tamil Nadu (in Ezhilagam Building, Chepauk, Chennai) is responsible for the overall management of disasters across the state. The Disaster Management-Data Analytics Centre, housed at the premises will help capture data trends from across all districts of Tamil Nadu in real time and display them live to inform the Government’s future decisions on the degree of response needed for each district and also for graded relaxation of the current lockdown to resume economic activities.

The Centre operates a call centre (helpline 1070) which is accessible to people across the state and delivers the first level of response in any emergency. Given the increased call volumes in the wake of Covid-19, HCL is helping to upgrade their existing call center by putting in place an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system to help direct the queries to the appropriate state helplines, build a case flow system to track caller identity, immediate needs and follow through with relevant departments to solve their issues within defined turnaround time.

In addition, HCL will also extend interim support through manpower assistance to respond to calls and provide initial response for administrative issues such as queries on food shortage and availability, support to migrant population, differently abled and elderly, respond to queries related to health and issues related to transport movement, among others.

The IT firm will also institute proper reporting mechanism to capture data trends from citizens’ queries and reports provided by the government. This data is fed that into the Emergency Operations Center to guide future course of action.

“We are happy to receive immediate support from HCL to strengthen our state-wide response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Our improved disaster management helpline will enable us to respond to citizens’ queries in a timely and effective manner and also capture insights from the same to define future course of action. We are thankful to HCL, who have helped to set up a state-of-the-art Disaster Management - Data Analytics Center in record time with facilities for real-time, live updates related to the pandemic,” said  J Radhakrishnan, Principal Secretary/Commissioner of Revenue Administration and State Relief Commissioner.