Give plans for combating Covid-19 in two days: HRD to IITs

The human resource development (HRD) ministry on Monday urged all Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to submit holistic plans within two days to help deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Amit Khare, HRD ministry secretary, has asked the directors of IITs to draw up clear short-term and medium-term technology solution plans to tackle COVID-19 and all such medical emergencies in the future. He held a video conference with the directors of IITs. For such medical emergencies, he tasked the institutes to draw up long-term plans too. A few of the IITs have already proposed short-term and medium-term ideas to the ministry.

According to Khare, these would be taken up with the health ministry and the expert Covid-19 Response Task Force presided by the principal scientific advisor to the government to enable a quick scale-up. A number of IITs have designed prototypes of protective masks and face shields. He further stated that IIT Guwahati and IIT Delhi are working on improved quality personal protective equipment for doctors and attendants dealing with Covid-19 patients. In several cases, prototypes are ready however scaling up needs industry collaborations and funding. Many institutes have planned research on Covid-19 virus but samples are not made available yet.

Among the short term proposals, masks, cheaper ventilators, and protective gear could soon be implemented at scale. IIT Kanpur has designed a prototype of a low-cost ventilator, priced at Rs 70,000 each in place of Rs 4 lakh versions presently in use. IIT Hyderabad has planned a substitute to ventilators, a redesigned ‘bag valve mask’ which is used to revive persons in emergencies. IIT Bombay is told to have devised an app to track Covid-19 patients and cases. At IIT Delhi, work is in the process to design protective apparel for medical personnel that can be optimised to provide a barrier to blood or microbes.

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