The Telangana government has launched WhatsApp Chatbot in Urdu to provide authentic information to citizens on coronavirus. The Chatbot was initially made available in Telugu and English only.
To start a conversation with the Chatbot, the user should send ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello’ or ‘Covid’ to 9000658658 on WhatsApp.
Alternatively, the user can click on the link ‘https://wa.me/919000658658? text=Hi’. This leads the user to the welcome page of Chatbot and one should select A for Telugu, B for English and C for Urdu. Once the user selects C, a menu with 10 topics is displayed and one should choose a topic to proceed.
Principal secretary, Information Technology, Jayesh Ranjan said that there is a dearth of authentic information on COVID-19 in vernacular languages. The situation is even more discouraging when it comes to languages like Urdu, which is the second official language of the State. “To address this concern, the Telangana government has decided to bring out the WhatsApp Chatbot in Urdu.”
