Pushing The Limits Of Innovations: India Works To Find Solutions For Pandemic

Indian innovators work to find, new, cheaper more readily available to help the fight against Coronavirus.

Nagaon: A medic checks the temperature of a passenger at a bus stand, during the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, in Nagaon, Saturday, April 25, 2020. State authorities have eased restrictions for inter-district travel for three days to those possessing curfew passes, starting from today. (PTI Photo)(PTI25-04-2020_000102B)

Coronavirus in India: Indian innovators work to find, new, cheaper more readily available to help the fight against Coronavirus. Positive Coronavirus cases have reached over 24,000 and claimed almost 775 lives. The ongoing lockdown is a measure to slow down the spread of the virus and buy time to treat people and come up with solutions to help with the war against the virus. Engineers from IITs to the Indian Railways have joined in creating indigenous solutions to help those in the frontline. Trying different strategies to help slow down the spread and even track people who might be infected. IIT-Delhi created a COVID-19 testing kit that got the ICMR’s approval. According to ANI, they had been working on the kit since January and developed it in 3 months. The kit is an affordable low-cost diagnostic, around the world there’s a shortage of testing kits and IIT’s kit could be used in large numbers. While IIT Kanpur earlier this month designed an indigenous, low-cost ventilator. IIT Ropar is designing a negative pressure room to prevent the spread of the disease through the air in isolation wards and testing labs reports say. Reports say that AIIMS hospital will test two robots which disinfect the floor. The Milagrow robot can navigate, disinfect, and sanitize floors without any human intervention. Another robot from the same company will help doctors monitor and interact with contagious COVID-19 patients remotely. Milagrow Business and Knowledge Solutions is an Indian technology and consulting firm, based in Gurgaon, India. DRDO designed a bodysuit for frontline workers to be protected while they treat patients. The full-body suit is meant to stop contamination during their work. According to PIB, scientists at various DRDO laboratories have applied their technical know-how and expertise in the textile, coating, and nanotechnology to develop the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) having a specific type of fabric with coating. A Vizag-based IT company, Fluentgrid, has started to provide smart technology solutions to power India’s fight against coronavirus. Along with creating mobile applications to self-diagnose, their innovative solutions will monitor the COVID-19 situation in real-time, especially in hot spots and other vulnerable locations. It will also help monitor public spaces and streets while guiding on-ground staff. The Indian Railways also created a low-cost ventilator, aside from which it converted almost 5000 coaches into isolation wards.  The ventilator is cost-effective and can be used by hospitals that cannot afford regular ventilators.