India: Google Pay now lists Nearby Spot to assist in finding shops selling essential items

Google has begun Nearby Spot to support its users find shops selling essentials like Milk, Vegetables, Eggs, Meat, and other items in their city, amidst the lockdown. Nearby Spot has already been launched in Bengaluru. It will also be followed out in cities like Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi.

“With the lockdown and social distancing measures in place, digital payments have become more powerful than ever, and Google Pay is an added surface to present key information regarding COVID-19,” Google in a blog post said.

In addition to this, the Spot app will also allow a Google Pay user to donate for the cause in programs such as PM-CARES Fund or to NGOs such as SEEDS, Give India, United Way, and Charities Aid Foundation.

These groups are working for the acquisition of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, which are on the frontline fighting this pandemic. They are also struggling to gather relief for daily wage earners and workers who have been affected by the nationwide lockdown.

The Spot platform was driven by Google last year. Its principal objective is to allow a business to create a listing for the Google Pay app, which offers a customizable branded experience for that business, notes PTI.

Google India’s new tweet read, “Working closely with @mygovindia; we are now surfacing locations of food shelters & night shelters on Google Maps, Search and Google Assistant, to help migrant workers & affected people across cities.“

In enhancement to this, YouTube has come up with “Coronavirus News Shelf” that it displays on top of its homepage. The new unique shelf will show correct, accurate, and authentic information related to coronavirus.

The takeaway and delivery alternatives look alongside the shortcuts for restaurants, chemists, petrol, ATM, etc. The delivery option presents its users with a list of nearby restaurants making deliveries in your locality. The Takeaway option offers its consumers with a list of restaurants that are giving takeaway options that will be presented to you.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday, declared the extension of the ongoing-lockdown till May 3, 2020, as India observed over 9000 active COVID-19 cases.