Best Indian Innovations During The Pandemic

As India works its way into the new normal, the week presents stories of resilience, ideas triumphing after floating on a thread of hope for a while, light-footed adaptations that held us in good stead—the veritable silver lining to the Covid-19 cloud hanging over all of us

- K. Sunil Thomas

Never since Lady Macbeth has handwashing become such an obsession. And opportunity. Once an accessory of just health care professionals and, perhaps, hypochondriacs, the hand sanitiser today comes Modi-endorsed, up there in the list of essential commodities for offices, shops and homes.

So, just as well, that from a handful of brands, as many as 152 new companies entered the sanitiser manufacturing market in the month of March alone, according to Nielsen India. Scores more followed suit in the ensuing months, ranging from startups and pharmaceuticals to liquor manufacturers and sugar mills.

Rahm Emanuel, who was chief of staff in Obama’s White House, put it succinctly. “Never let a serious crisis go to waste,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to do things you could not do before!”

So it was when the pandemic-lockdown lethal duo sucker-punched India. While most of us withdrew to the safety of the four walls of homes, an intrepid bunch decided to unleash its ingenuity. From Bengaluru’s Log9, which came up with a CoronaOven to sterilise anything from milk packets to a wad of cash, to the Gollar robot employed in Covid-19 wards in Mumbai to serve food and medicines to patients, to the IIT Madras wrist-band that tracks early Covid-19 symptoms and notifies the result via Bluetooth, the examples are plenty.