June 17, 2020
New Delhi: IIT Alumni Council will partner with ICT Mumbai in the MegaLab initiative for creation of national infrastructure for testing of infectious diseases like Covid-19.
The Partnership will meet the immediate need for mass testing though reliable, faster and cheaper genetic diagnostics – in addition to becoming a showpiece for indigenous technology and engineering capability.” Said Prof Anirudha Pandit, an alumnus of IIT, member of the Board of Governors of IIT Bombay and Vice Chancellor of ICT Mumbai.
IIT Alumni Council, along with partner organizations has helped rapidly deploy innovative
appropriate technologies to help meet the health crisis perpetuated by the c19 pandemic. These
include AI based digital x-ray systems, contactless c19 isolation centre configurations, IOT
systems for virtual hospitals, pool testing algorithms for RTPCR, c19 test bus, open indigenous
technology stacks for testing like Kodoy and ultracompact indigenous ultrasound scanners
with portable gene sequencing so that the entire functionality of the Covid bus launched on
Maharashtra Day can now be fitted in a cab. Several companies are developing 100% indigenous
kits – in both liquid and solid sta
“IIT Alumni Council is very happy to welcome ICT Mumbai as its institutional partner for the
MegaLab and RTPCR 2.0 initiative.The process development and technology strengths of ICT Mumbai, their alumni, students and faculty will accelerate our path to self-sufficiency and global supremacy in this field . We are very pleased to partner with eminent institutions in pursuance of our nation building agenda” said Ravi Sharma, President, IIT Alumni Council.
ICT Mumbai becomes the second institutional partner in the MegaLab
initiative after Mumbai University – and will help upgrade the conventional RTqPCR kit
manufacturing and testing lines to meet RTPCR2.0 targets on kit transportation and storage at
room temperature, lower cost per test (through lower consumption of kit material) and per
sample (through higher pooling ratio) and ability to manufacture the test kits and test kit
constituents in large continuous process plants.
—-India News Stream
