Centre throws open contest to all citizens to come up with solutions for COVID-19

With the Wuhan virus stretching its tentacles across different parts of the country, the Central is leaving no stone unturned in the fight against the pandemic. The National Innovation Foundation (NIF), a body under the Department of Science and Technology has called for ideas and products that can be scaled up to put to public use to control the spread of the virus and minimize its impact.

Titled as Challenge COVID-19 Competition (C3), the challenge is open to all, with age and qualifications being no bar. The NIF would assist in mentoring and funding the project to make a prototype and further develop the idea/product. The contest which was opened on March 31 has already received more than a hundred submissions among which 10 of them have been shortlisted.

The themes on which ideas can be submitted are – sanitation, supply and distribution of essentials to the disabled and elderly, keeping the people gainfully engaged in lockdown period, healthy food for nutrition and boosting immunity, contact-less devices for post-COVID needs, rapid testing equipments and PPEs, etc.

There is no deadline to submit ideas and proposals. Once the idea is found to be effective, it would be incubated and supported with funding and mentorship. An open source platform would be created so that people themselves can make the product or implement the idea at their end.