Contents:
- Government of India launches ArogyaSetu App
- Union Minster releases National Corona Survey:
- DST approves 5 technology projects to combat Covid-19
Government of India launches ArogyaSetu App
Why in news?
The Government of India launched a mobile app ArogyaSetu developed in public-private partnership to bring the people of India together in a resolute fight against COVID-19.
Details:
The App, called ‘AarogyaSetu’ joins Digital India for the health
and well-being of every Indian.
It will enable people to assess themselves the risk of their catching the
Corona Virus infection.
It will calculate this based on their interaction with others,
using cutting edge Bluetooth technology, algorithms and artificial
intelligence.
The personal data collected by the App is encrypted using state-of-the-art
technology and stays secure on the phone till it is needed for facilitating
medical intervention.
Union Minster releases National Corona Survey:
Why in news?
Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions today released the National Preparedness Survey on COVID 19 – Responses of District Collectors and IAS Officers (2014-2018 batches).
The objectives of this preparedness survey are as follows:
- to develop a comparative analysis of COVID 19 preparedness across States;
- to highlight the main priorities and constraints of COVID 19 preparedness, as they are perceived by the civil servants working in the field;
- to access enabling factors in making institutional/ logistics/ hospital preparedness, etc.;
- to capture trends to identify systemic and process related deficiencies, in combating COVID 19 in the districts of India.
DST approves 5 technology projects to combat Covid-19
Why in news?
Recently, the Department of Science and Technology – Science and Engineering Board (DST-SERB) has approved several special research projects to urgently ramp up national R&D efforts against the epidemic.
Details:
About Technology Projects
- The first project is led by IIT-Bombay to search for potential metabolite biomarker signature for COVID infection and recognition of novel targets for therapy.
- The second project is led by IIT-Kanpur which will work on developing materials with coatings that can effectively destroy viruses and the materials will be cost-effective, can be repurposed and will be used in various healthcare settings.
- The third project is related to development of antiviral surface coatings to prevent the spread of infections caused by influenza virus and the objective of the project is to develop small molecular and polymeric compounds which will be coated, both covalently as well as non-covalently, on various surfaces and kill respiratory viruses completely upon contact.
- The fourth project led by IIT-Delhi which includes developing material that may be used as a virus tactic and be applied to mops to disinfect the surfaces to remove any adhering viruses or bacteria.
- The fifth project is led by IIT-Bombay which will work on developing anti-bodies against the ‘spike’ glycoprotein of the novel coronavirus.
