Civil services associations form 'Caruna' to fight coronavirus

Associations representing officers of central civil services, including the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS), have formed an initiative called 'Caruna' to support and supplement the government's efforts in fighting coronavirus, an official said on Friday.

The acronym 'Caruna' stands for Civil Services Associations Reach to Support in Natural Disasters and represents a collaborative platform, on which civil servants, industry leaders, NGO professionals and IT professionals among others have come together to contribute their time and abilities.

"Civil Service associations- IFS, IPS, IFoS, IRS (IT), IRS (C&E), IRPS, IRTS, IPOS, IA&AS, IDES, ICAS, IIS & IAS form CARUNA - Civil services Association Reach to Support in Natural Disasters - a technology platform to support Govt in the fight against #COVID19," the central IAS officers' association tweeted.

"Caruna will support and supplement laudable government initiatives on a real time basis, besides sharing relevant information with @MoHFW_INDIA, @mygovindia and the task forces set up by the central and state governments in the fight against COVID19," it said in another tweet.

The Caruna platform has already created a 10-day action plan for operationalisation of support to both governments and field-level functionaries, and created themes (called threads on slack) on capacity building/training support to healthcare workers etc., database collation of health equipment manufacturers etc., mitigation of migration-related issues and temporary shelters, working on food security related issues etc., with specific responsibilities being assumed by dedicated teams of members, according to its website.

"This pool of volunteer members is also available to the government for being deployed under their instructions," it said.