Droom - antibacterial coating, IIT developing ventilators, NABARD - campaign to promote literacy on sanitation and hygiene and many more are the key initiatives to support the society among pandemic in different forms.
It is well known how the coronavirus pandemic has taken its toll on the healthcare industry. From the problem of insufficient quarantine and testing facilities to an increasing number of non-covid patients being refused to get treated by hospitals, there were several challenges covid-19 has given rise to in the healthcare industry. Furthermore, most hospitals have witnessed a stark decrease in their footfalls. However, despite all these, there were many private players as well government organisations that have not backed down in their contributions towards public health.
Here are the top ten initiatives by them during the pandemic.
- SBI Foundation
SBI Foundation, the CSR Arm of State Bank of India launched the Indian Health Alliance to provide comprehensive primary healthcare and optimum nutrition to the vulnerable sections of the society. As part of this initiative, SBI Foundation has been setting up a $100 million in association with the National Health Authority, SBI and USAID India for human capital expansion, infrastructure development, etc in healthcare industry at community level. It will also be launching community screening and testing and tele-care initiative.
2. Project Kavach by Apollo Hospitals
To help people across the nation deal with the pandemic, Apollo Group of Hospitals launched Project Kavach earlier in March this year. From services pertaining to information, preventive measures and treatment to ICU facilities for patients in serious conditions, the plan encompasses all the aspects of healthcare needed to effectively tackle covid-19
3. IITs-incubated start-ups
With shortage of ventilators one of the major concerns in healthcare industry amid the pandemic, Nocca Robotics, incubated at IIT Kanpur, Aerobiosys Innovations, incubated at IIT Hyderabad and AgVa Healthcare, have been developing ventilators that are portable, easy to use and more importantly, affordable.
4. Droom
The e-commerce company Droom, has come up with a special antibacterial coating that inhibits the growth of bacteria including yeast and mould on surface of vehicles. It is currently being tested by Gurugram Police.
5. Fortis Healthcare
In its bid to continue delivering patient care amid the pandemic, Fortis Healthcare rolled out tele-consultation services including video consultation in 23 hospitals across the country.
6. Arvi Healthcare
The Hyderabad-based start-up has developed a contactless thermal-scanning kiosk under the Make In India initiative. Leveraging artificial intelligence, the kiosks detect people with high temperatures and those who are not wearing masks, thus eliminating the need of human intervention in public areas.
7. Covid Healthcare Professionals (CHP) Initiative
The initiative was virtually launched by ECHO India in association with Naukri.com to address the challenges in shortage of highly skilled healthcare professionals and facilities in managing the increasing cases of Covid-19.
8. Neotia Healthcare Initiative
NHIL, a public holding company, has brought in a number of technology innovations in the healthcare system amid the pandemic. Some of them includes mobile app based tele-medicine and tele-consultation, adoption of MS O365 for management of staff and use of MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) connectivity so that patients can reach out during medical emergencies.
9. Optimum Global Solutions
The company pledged around Rs 2.20 crores to FIND India to boost the country’s testing capacity amid the pandemic.
10. NABARD
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development has launched a Sanitation Literacy Campaign (SLC) to promote literacy on sanitation and hygiene. The project is being undertaken in over 2000 villages across the country.
