Updated 28 July 2020 at 08:38 IST
Google extends Work From Home until July 2021: 'Want to make sure you're taking care'
As the global Coronavirus tally reached 16,642,264, Google has decided that its employees and contractors should work from home at least till June 2021
As the global Coronavirus tally reached 16,642,264, Google has decided that most of its 200,000 employees and contractors should work from home at least till June 2021. The remote-work order issued Monday by Google CEO Sundar Pichai also affects other companies owned by Google's corporate parent, Alphabet Inc. It marks a six-month extension of Google's previous plan to keep most of its offices closed through the rest of this year.
In an email to employees.“I know this extended timeline may come with mixed emotions and I want to make sure you're taking care of yourselves," wrote Pichai, who is also Alphabet's CEO. Besides helping protect people from the virus, the new July 2021 target date for reopening Google's offices should make it easier for workers with children to adjust to schools that aren't allowing students to return to campus next month and in September. It will also make it easier for employees to sign one-year leases if they decide to rent a home somewhere else while working outside the office, Pichai added. Pichai's email noted that Google and Alphabet have been able to reopen some offices in 42 countries, although he didn't specify which.
Even before the World Health Organization declared a pandemic on March 11, Google and many other prominent tech firms had been telling their employees to work from home. Google had originally planned to allow a significant number of employees to begin returning to its Mountain View, California, headquarters and other offices during the summer. But the pandemic's ongoing spread prompted Google to push back the reopening until January and now it has prompted yet another delay.
Google announces investment in India
Google CEO Sundar Pichai earlier this month announced a new $10 billion Google for India Digitization fund to help accelerate India’s digital economy. Taking to Twitter, Pichai said that Google is proud to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Digital India after the duo discussed various issues.
The top executive said that the company will invest Rs 75,000 crore into India over the next 5-7 years through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments. He added that the huge investment reflects Google’s confidence in the future of India and its digital economy.
Announcing the decision, Pichai wrote in a blog that the mission of Google is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. He added that the mission is “deeply personal” to him since, as a kid, he always had to wait for every new piece of technology to arrive from someplace else. “Today, people in India no longer have to wait for technology to come to you. A whole new generation of technologies are happening in India first,” he wrote.
(with inputs from PTI)
Published By : Navashree Nandini
Published On: 28 July 2020 at 08:38 IST