Chennai: In March 2020, the entire nation went under lockdown. But, all hopes were not lost and there were many who fought the pandemic with undying spirit. ‘NT’ presents you some success stories.
Early last year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) claimed that the only way to curb the spread of Covid-19 was by maximising the number of tests.
It was at this juncture that GeneStore France, a French MNC led by its Indian founder, Anubhav Anusha launched the ‘world’s most affordable’ Covid-19 RT-PCR test kit at a price of Rs 199 approved by both the French Ministry of Health and ICMR.
As a company, GeneStore faced one major challenge, primarily of demonstrating to the leading laboratories in India that delivering consistent quality was in fact possible at the affordable price of GeneStore’s RT PCR kit. However, the company smoothly sailed through the stringent validation processes of these laboratories, many of which are CAP (College of American Pathology) accredited, due to the fact that GeneStore has an end-to-end manufacturing set-up for all raw materials in Europe and India that allows us to pass on the cost benefit directly to the market.
There are many who did their best to help the needy. K S Jeyaraman, a Rotarian, donated 1,000 PPE kits worth Rs 1.20 lakh for the use of doctors and paramedical staff at Public Health Centre, West Mambalam. The kits were part of global grant sanctioned to the hosptial by Rotary Club of Madras Midtown.
As the Indian automotive companies emerge from the Covid-19 crisis, their internal capabilities like wallet share improvement, new customer acquisition, robust product development, manufacturing throughput maximization, generation of free cash flows and a sound talent lifecycle management in upskilling the employees are some of the challenges that the industry is facing.
A new acceleration program by Wadhwani Advantage aims to address these challenges and offer solutions to business entrepreneurs for maximising their growth potential through ‘Do-It-Yourself (DIY)’ discovery and business solution tool kits and other knowledge resources using AI-enabled automated logic and personalized interventions.
The goal is to strengthen the business ecosystem without any commercial expectations.
Meanwhile, when Covid-19 vaccines were in various stages of rollout across the US, delivery of medicines continued to be a crucial service, helping people stay protected indoors.
Hyderabad-based Uber Eats Engineering team led the integration of prescription delivery company NimbleRx’s backend onto the Eats platform to help launch one of the company’s latest products, delivery of prescription medicines, in parts of the US late last year.
The team that worked on this integration comprises a total of five engineers, including Android and iOS engineers, a web engineer, a backend engineer, and an engineering manager.
Commenting on the development of the new product, Jaiteerth Patwari, Site Lead, Eats Engineering said, “this backend integration is an example of our tech centres in India building for the world. Given the high priority we place on the safety and convenience of customers, our teams worked at lightning speed to develop a solution for aiding the on demand delivery of medicines for those in need.”
Digital transformation
A virtual forum named India Online brought together business leaders from varied business backgrounds and subject matter experts to discuss digital solutions and innovations that can pave the way towards a sustainable future.
Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, was the chief guest for the Hitachi Social Innovation Forum 2021. The two-day virtual event witnessed an amalgamation of bureaucrats, government officials, heads representing innovation and technology fields, industry-best minds and leaders from key industries.