Coronavirus cases in India have crossed 300, and the country is now diligently observing ‘Janata Curfew’ or self-isolation on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call. At the same time however, there are sections of engineers, bio medical professionals from across the country, working to create medical devices and other equipments, should the situation worsen.
Paytm, the Alibaba-backed digital payments behemoth, has announced creation of a ₹5 crore (~$660K) fund to support such innovators. Taking to Twitter, Paytm group’s CEO and founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma announced, “Paytm commits ₹5 crore for such teams working on COVID related medical solutions.”
We need more Indian innovators to start building such indigenous solutions for potential ventilators shortage and other COVID cures. @Paytm commits ₹5 crore for such teams working on COVID related medical solutions. pic.twitter.com/YZ1a6RzaKp
— Stay Home, Stay Safe (@vijayshekhar) March 22, 2020
His response also had a note attached from Gourab Banerjee, a professor at the prestigious Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc) Bangalore. In the note, Banerjee can be seen appealing to bio medical engineers across the nation to help his team put up a ventilator prototype, assembled using Indian ingredients. Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s commitment seems to have been inspired by that note.
Sharma added, “We need more Indian innovators to start building such indigenous solutions for potential ventilators shortage and other COVID cures.”
In order to apply, all innovators who think they may have relevant, COVID 19 related medical solutions, can email Paytm’s dedicated email id covidcure@paytm.com. All you need to do, is drop a brief note about your innovation, along with your contact details. Paytm’s team will get in touch with you post that.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma has been one of the more active entrepreneurs in the country, when it comes to issuing response to the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak. Just yesterday, he committed to forgoing 2 months of his salary, in order to pay contract and other low-paid workers in the company. India is under a self-imposed lockdown, one of the largest such exercises and responses to corona outbreak globally. Hence, state governments and business houses have been coming up to financially support workers with lower wages and contract ones during these isolation days.
