KAKATIYA
UNIVERSITY, WARNAGAL
ENGLISH FOR CAREERS
UG CBCS- SEMESTER 6- TEXTS
UNIT3: How Corona virus sparked a wave of
innovation (prose) - Sreevas Sahasranamam
Sreevas Sahasranamam studies
entrepreneurs and innovators who tackle big challenges-especially in emerging
markets-as well as the institutional factors that affect their work. He leads
the doctoral training centre in Socially Progressive Innovation and
Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow. Scotland), and is a
part of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) UK team. At the Strathclyde
Business School, in addition to teaching, he supervises work on the
commercialisation of technologies.
ABOUT THE TEXT
The following essay, written in
April 2020, enumerates a number of innovations made by Indian entrepreneurs and
start-ups to help combat the deadly outbreak of COVID-19. The author also
examines a few reasons for the rapid development and deployment of these
innovative ideas.
TEXT (LESSON)
Entrepreneurs and innovators
across India have responded quickly to the challenge posed by the COVID-19
pandemic. A host of new innovations, some emerging from start-ups that have
been incubated by universities, have appeared in recent weeks.
There are a number of reasons
for the quick response, including the urgency of the humanitarian situation and
a proactive approach to crowd sourcing ideas from the government. India also
has a wealth of trained engineering talent and helps foster what's called
jugaad-a frugal innovation mindset to find hacks to problems with limited
resources.
Robots, apps and ventilators
Around the world, social
distancing and contact tracing have been the buzzwords of the response to
COVID-19. A particular problem as lockdowns begin to ease will be how to stop
the virus spreading in public spaces such as airports or bus stations. Asimov
Robotics, a start-up based in Kerala, has deployed robots at entrances to
office buildings and other public places to dispense hand sanitiser and deliver
public health messages about the virus.
Robots developed by Asimov
Robotics are also being deployed in hospital isolation wards to carry food and
medicines, which eases the pressure on medical staff.
In early April, the Indian
government launched a COVID-19 tracking app called Aarogya Setu which uses GPS
and Bluetooth to inform people when they are at risk of exposure to COVID 19.
The app was launched before a similar initiative from tech giants Google and
Apple got off the ground.
Start-ups, including Klinic App
and Practo, are providing COVID-19 tests at home and online consultation with
doctors through their platform.
In response to the shortage of
ventilators for critical care, start-ups such as Nocca Robotics (incubated at
Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur), Acrobiosys Innovations (incubated at IIT
Hyderabad) and AgVa Healthcare are developing low-cost, easy-to-use, and
portable ventilators that can be deployed even in rural areas of India. These
ventilators would need. medical regulatory approval before they could be
deployed.
Start-ups are also supporting
the government's public information campaign on coronavirus by developing
technology platforms to disseminate government notifications. The Kerala state
government launched an app called Gok-Kerala Direct using a platform developed
by QKopy. It sends COVID-19 updates and travel information via phone.
notifications, and via SMS to older phones for the less than half of India's
population without smartphones, These messages are delivered both in English
and in Malayalam, the local language.
The hygiene of public spaces is
another area of notable innovation. Start-ups such as Aqoza technologies and
PerSapien claim they have developed chemical formulations that disinfect public
spaces. Aqoza's approach, developed during an outbreak of Nipah virus in Kerala
in 2018, is a water-based sanitiser disinfectant, while 'Airlens Minus Corona
from PerSapien is a machine which the company claims dispenses ionised water
droplets to oxidise the viral protein.
Another startup, Droom, claims
it has come up with a special anti-microbial coating called Corono Shield,
which inhibits the growth of microorganisms such as bacteria. algae, yeast,
moulds, and mildew on the surfaces of vehicles. It is being tested by police in
Gurugram in Haryana state.
Start-ups such as Marut
Dronetech have partnered with state governments to test the use of drones to
monitor adherence to social distancing rules. Drones are also being used to
deliver medical supplies and even check people's temperature using thermal
imaging.
Connecting people
My conversations with some of
these entrepreneurs and innovators from India have highlighted a good example
of the triple helix model of innovation, integrating efforts between
universities, industries (start-ups) and the government, in response to COVID-19.
Although the active involvement of engineering volunteers from universities and
industry is the lifeblood of these innovations, two other enabling factors are
also particularly crucial.
First, the intermediary
organisations helping to bring the three groups together. For instance, the
national government's Department of Science and Technology has set up a task
force to map technologies developed by start-ups related to COVID-19. It is also
funding start-ups to develop relevant innovations such as rapid testing for the
virus.
Another example is that of the
Kerala Start-up Mission (KSUM), a government-supported entrepreneurship
development agency. It launched initiatives such as 'Breath of Hope' which
brings together an interdisciplinary volunteer team of IT professionals,
biomedical engineers and doctors to develop innovative medical devices.
Start-ups such as Asimov Robotics and QKopy are part of KSUM.
Crowdsourcing ideas
Second, crowdsourced platforms
have also proved to be an important channel for bringing together the wisdom
from universities, industry and government. The national government launched
the COVID-19 solution challenge on March 16 that invites innovators to offer
ideas and solutions for tackling the pandemic. Industry associations such as
the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry collaborated in an
online hackathon to develop non-medical solutions for COVID-19.
Similar crowdsourced platforms
from start-up incubators such as BreakCorona received 1,300 ideas and 180
product solutions within two days of launch. In another effort, volunteers.
have set up an online crowdsourced portal called Coronasafe-Network, a
real-time open source public platform containing details on COVID-19
precautions, tools and responses which serves as a useful starter-kit for
innovators.
India needs to sustain and
enhance this entrepreneurial mindset to create the next wave of innovation to
continue the fight against COVID-19 and for the socio-economic recovery once
lockdown restrictions begin to ease.
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