COVID Crisis: IIT Kharagpur Allots Rs 50 Lakh For Projects To Help Health Workers

Kolkata: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has got the approval from IIT council to allot Rs 50 lakh on eight projects dedicated towards COVID-19 healthcare technology development.

The institute confirmed the news on twitter and also mentioned appreciation from Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

In his tweet, the minister congratulated the IIT Kharagpur director, Virendra Kumar Tiwari, and his team of researchers.

According to the KGP Chronicle, IIT-Kharagpur’s news website, the eight projects are focused on several technologies including design and development of rapid diagnostic kit, real-time PCR machine, body suit for COVID-19 patients, personal protective equipment for healthcare workers and portable shredder integrated with sterilizer, Hazmat Suit with forced purified and cooled air circulation for medical professionals, bootstrapping ambu-bag as automated ventilator, telemedicine for fighting viral pandemic, large scale production of recombinant proteins for vaccine and testing.

While the projects will enter phase-1 after the lockdown, the prototypes for a few are likely to be ready within a duration of three to four weeks with a six-month response time for a couple of the projects.

“It is our responsibility to improve the quality of life of the last person in society. While we built some quick technologies to cater to the immediate needs of the essential service providers on the campus, we were simultaneously preparing project proposals and evaluating them keeping in mind the immediate need of the country, cost, and product delivery period,” Tiwari was quoted by the KGP Chronicle as saying.