Joining the forces to find innovative solutions to the Coronavirus pandemic, 11 teams consisting of scientists from India and the United States will present “out of the box” solutions to deal with Coronavirus, ANI reported. The announcement was made by the Union Ministry of Science and Technology, which said that the area of cooperation between the scientists will range from early diagnostic Covid-19 tests, antiviral therapy for patients, ventilator research, disinfection machines and technology to symptom tracking of Covid-19 patients, among others. It also informed that the selection of 11 teams of scientists from the two countries was done on the basis of the review of their proposals that were invited under Covid-19 Ignition Grants in the month of April. The grant was issued by the US-India Science and Technology Endowment Fund (USISTEF). A rigorous review process of reviewing the proposals submitted by scientists from the two countries was also undertaken by both the countries before zeroing in on the final teams, the release from the ministry was quoted as saying by ANI.
The USISTEF was established by the government of India and the government of the United States via their respective institutions Department of Science and Technology and the US Department of States respectively. The initiative was launched to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the field of Science and Technology.
With the development of an effective and easily accessible Covid-19 vaccine months away, the development assumes significance as innovative solutions to diagnose the presence of virus among the large population is the best way to check its spread. Also, the research and use of an effective antiviral therapy could come to play a large role in minimising the mortality rate among Covid-19 patients to a negligible level. The latest and large scale disinfection tools could also instil confidence among the governments and businesses to open up the economy without the fear of the deadly virus.
