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By Gunjan Sharma New Delhi, Jun 14 () Low-cost portable ventilators, affordable COVID-19 test kits, drones for sanitisation, specialised digital stethoscopes, disposable bamboo furniture for makeshift isolation wards and "infection-proof fabric" for hospitals -- these are among several innovations, by IITs across the country during the lockdown period, which are ready to the hit the market to aid the fight against COVID-19. The innovations have taken commercial route either through IIT-incubated startups or the premiere institutes have given license to companies keeping the patent rights with themselves. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, which became the first academic institute to get a nod from the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for its COVID-19 test kit, has given non-exclusive open licence to Bengaluru-based biotechnology firm Genie Laboratories for commercialising the test, but with a price rider of Rs 500 per kit. The kits are being manufactured at a facility at the Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone (AMTZ) in Vishakhapatnam, and are expected to be available in the market in the next 10 days. "Over 40 companies, including a few big names, have reached out to us to commercialise the test. We will be giving open licences to companies which meet the quality criterion set by us. We are also giving the licence with a price rider so that companies do not hike the price once commercialised. We have shortlisted Genie laboratories as the first one, but there will be more companies too," IIT Delhi Director V Ramgopal told . According to the IIT Delhi team, the current testing methods available are "probe-based" while the one developed by the IIT team is a "probe-free" method, which reduces the testing cost without compromising on accuracy. Another innovation by the institute, an "infection-proof fabric" to be used at hospitals to prevent hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) is being sent to various hospitals in Delhi and NCR in the form of bed sheets, curtains and uniforms by an incubated startup called "Fabiosys Innovations". The innovation was earlier tested at AIIMS. "We take rolls of cotton fabric and treat it with a set of proprietary-developed chemicals under a set of particular reaction conditions, using the machinery already commonly available in textile industries. The fabric, after undergoing these processes, gains the powerful antimicrobial functionality," Samrat Mukhopadhyay, a professor at the Department of Textile and Fibre Engineering in IIT-Delhi, said. "Even after washing multiple times, it does not lose its functionality. This fabric can be stitched into various articles such as bedsheets, the uniforms for patients, doctors and nurses and even curtains. The fabric satisfies the Indian standards in terms of the number of washing. It is completely non-toxic and affordable," he added. A "digital stethoscope" developed by a team at IIT Bombay, that can listen to heartbeats from a distance and record them, minimising the risk of healthcare professionals contracting the novel coronavirus from patients, is already available in the market. Operating a start-up called "AyuDevice" from the IIT's technology business incubator, the team has sent 1,000 stethoscopes to different hospitals and healthcare centres across the country. The product is also available for sale at various stores. An IIT Guwahati startup "Marut Dronetech" has developed two types of drones, which are being used by the Telangana government and various departments across the state. The drones are being deployed for spraying disinfectant in public spaces to prevent the coronavirus. They can disinfect 50 times more area than what can be done using traditional methods, the institute claimed. "We have also developed public monitoring and warning drones which are fitted with a camera and speaker. These can be used to monitor places, especially with high disease prevalence for crowd gathering and give appropriate instructions to people, using fitted loudspeakers," said Prem Kumar Vislawath, an IIT Guwahati alumnus. The institute's design department has come up with a bamboo hospital furniture range, mass production of which is quick and low cost, to meet demands arising out of hospitalisation of more people with the spike in coronavirus cases. "The furniture can be used at primary health centres and makeshift isolation wards set up in places like indoor stadiums. It can be easily disposed of when the virus has been contained. Over 200 beds can be manufactured per day using the design. We have tied up with two local entrepreneurs for manufacturing," a professor said. IIT Kanpur has collaborated with ICICI Securities for the development of a low-cost ventilator innovated by two of its students. "This easily portable ventilator will be much cheaper than other life-saving machines available in the market. It will also work as a sanitizer to keep the hospital germ-free. Due to the components used in the ventilator which are specifically manufactured in India, it will cost only Rs 70,000 while available ventilators cost around Rs 4 lakh," said IIT-Kanpur Director Abhay Karandikar. "We plan to develop around 30,000 units in 2020, and the first lot is expected to hit the market soon," he added. According to the Union Health ministry, India saw the highest single-day spike of 11,929 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the number of infections to over 3.20 lakh on Sunday, while the toll crossed the 9,000-mark with 311 more deaths. GJS CK CK

Low-cost test kits to santising drones: IIT innovations take commercial route to aid COVID-19 fight

Mumbai, May 28 () As part of its effort to fight the COVID pandemic, the IIT Alumni Council on Thursday announced the setting up of a mega lab in the metropolis with a capacity of 10 million tests per month by July. The council also said it will soon start identifying partners for the same through a global competition. Having launched the first 'Covid Test Bus' in the city earlier in the month, the council also said trials have already begun on two of the supercomputer clusters in the megapolis, which alone has seen more than 35,000 cases out of the close to 1.58 lakh in the country and nearly 2,000 of the over 4,700 deaths in the country so far. While vaccine is still more than a year away in the best case scenario, the testing capacity has emerged as the biggest challenge. So the focus of the lab is to ensure timely testing, therefore their focus is on detecting, preventing and treating the disease with timely as well as affordable testing. It can be noted that the council has also set up COVID-19 Taskforce under the chairmanship of K Vijay Raghavan, an IIT Kanpur alumnus and the principal scientific officer to the Centre, with 20 IIT directors as members, along with many other distinguished alumni of the institutes. "The IIT Alumni Council has decided to set up the largest genetic testing laboratory for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases after consulting global experts in the areas of virology, RT-PCR machine manufactures, test kits, pooling algorithms, AI, machine learning, robotics and microfluidics. "A dedicated team has already started work on designing the MegaLab Mumbai with a capacity of 10 million RT-PCR tests per month," said Ravi Sharma, president of the IIT Alumni Council. "The MegaLab will be based on the end-to-end Kodoy indigenous technology stack and will have adequate capacity for testing the entire population of Mumbai for infectious diseases, once a month," he added. The COVID-19 Taskforce, announced on March 25 itself - the day the first phase of the now-nine-weeks long national lockdown was announced, has various working groups involving over 1,000 dedicated alumni spread all over the world to finding/creating appropriate solutions to fight the pandemic. Apart from these, the council also set up digital Xray systems at the Poddar Hospital that uses AI to detect coronavirus for the first time in the country on April 23; on May 1, it also launched the country's first COVID Test Bus in the city and from May 10, they started the work on indigenising the test kits. The MegaLab Mumbai is the latest initiative of the IIT Alumni Council with an aim to design and establish the largest genetic testing laboratory for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases like tuberculosis with an end-to-end capacity to carry out over 10 million tests a month. It will comprise three independent lines -– 1 million tests per month, 3 million and 6 million tests per month. The MegaLab will be based on the end-to-end Kodoy indigenous technology stack, and for implementation, the Kodoy stack is divided in 64 steps from (collection of) virus in the throat to the virus being ultimately zapped/disinfected by UV at the completion of testing in a RT-PCR. The testing infrastructure will comprise the vehicle mounted automated sample collection stations in cars or cabs and Covid test buses, while the MegaLab will comprise robotic contactless sample transport from the vehicles to the testing line with robotic pooling followed by high speed RNA extraction using magnetic bead technology. The IIT Alumni Council is the largest global body of alumni, students and faculty across all the 23 IITs with over 100 city chapters. BEN MKJ MKJ

IIT Alumni Council to set up mega lab in Mumbai to conduct 1-cr COVID-19 tests a month

New Delhi, Apr 20 () Leading institutions of the country have developed a mission-critical personal protection kit for health workers to fight the deadly coronavirus infection, the World University of Design said in a statement on Monday. The prototypes of PPE Kits are currently undergoing the second round of testing in a Chennai hospital and are expected to go into production within this week, World University of Design vice chancellor Dr Sanjay Gupta said. IIT Delhi, AIIMS, World University of Design and Chennai-based extile Mills have jointly developed the kit, he mentioned."The design and production of these kits is open source, therefore any small or medium scale factory interested can take the design from us and start manufacturing them. The key feature of this design is the ease of doffing, where the garment can be taken off by the person without touching the infected outer surface. The prototypes for these kits have been created following the required protocol," Gupta said.There has been a huge shortage of PPE kits and hundreds of health workers have fallen prey to coronavirus in absence of his mission critical tool. According to the health ministry update on Monday, the death toll due to the coronavirus has reached 559 and the number of cases has risen to 17,656 across the country.However, a tally of figures reported by various states and union territories, as of 6.30 PM, showed 17,744 confirmed cases, 2,859 recoveries and 584 deaths. Maharashtra alone has reported 4,600 cases, while Delhi has also crossed 2,000. Gujarat has over 1,800 cases, while Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan are above 1,500 each, closely followed by Madhya Pradesh at over 1,400.Some of the Indian firms have started manufacturing PPE kits in small quantities.Gupta said that a team of researchers from WUD has designed the PPE sets keeping in mind the ease of donning and doffing the PPE without help. "These sets are designed to make them fit Indian body shapes and sizes. They help avoid loose, hanging parts which may come in contact with infected surfaces and get contaminated. There are no unnecessary openings which may aid the contagion to pass through the PPE, thereby infecting the person in question. Even micro-openings created while stitching the garment, which may provide a pathway for the virus to enter, are sealed off along with the seams," the statement said.Loyal Textile Mills will start production once the suit sealing machine reaches the factory. "The design involving a minimum number of seams not only minimizes the risk of seam leakage but is also fast and cheap to produce. Special barrier fabrics which are breathable and provide the highest liquid barrier protection level are used to make the PPE. A combination of all this makes it the perfect PPE kit designed to meet the challenge posed by the covid-19," the statement said. A PPE kit includes goggles, face-shield, mask, gloves, coverall/gowns (with or without aprons), head cover and shoe cover.The World University of Design and IIT Delhi have been working closely on the research, development and promotion of functional clothing for various medical applications. PRS MR

Indigenous PPE kit developed to fight coronavirus, production may start this week

New Delhi, Apr 20 () Haryana-based World University of Design on Monday said it along with IIT Delhi, AIIMS and a few textile mills in Chennai have developed indigenous personal protection equipment kits for healthcare workers in the fight against coronavirus infection.The prototypes of PPE kits are currently undergoing the second round of testing in a Chennai hospital and are expected to go into production within this week, World University of Design Vice-Chancellor Sanjay Gupta said in a statement.IIT Delhi, AIIMS, World University of Design and Chennai-based textile mills have jointly developed the kit, he said."The design and production of these kits is open source, therefore any small or medium scale factory interested can take the design from us and start manufacturing them."The key feature of this design is the ease of doffing, where the garment can be taken off by the person without touching the infected outer surface. The prototypes for these kits have been created following the required protocol," Gupta said.The World University of Design is a private university in Haryana.According to the health ministry update on Monday, the death toll due to the coronavirus has reached 559 and the number of cases has risen to 17,656 across the country.Some of the Indian firms have started manufacturing PPE kits in small quantities.Gupta said that a team of researchers from WUD has designed the PPE sets keeping in mind the ease of donning and doffing the PPE without help."These sets are designed to make them fit Indian body shapes and sizes. They help avoid loose, hanging parts which may come in contact with infected surfaces and get contaminated. "There are no unnecessary openings which may aid the contagion to pass through the PPE, thereby infecting the person in question. Even micro-openings created while stitching the garment, which may provide a pathway for the virus to enter, are sealed off along with the seams," the statement said.Loyal Textile Mills will start production once the suit sealing machine reaches the factory.A PPE kit includes goggles, face-shield, mask, gloves, coverall/gowns (with or without aprons), headcover and shoe cover. PRS RAM MR

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Low-cost test kits to santising drones: IIT innovations take commercial route to aid COVID-19 fight

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IIT Alumni Council to set up mega lab in Mumbai to conduct 1-cr COVID-19 tests a month

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Indigenous PPE kit developed to fight coronavirus, production may start this week

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Indigenous PPE kit developed to fight coronavirus, production may start this week, says Haryana university

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