May 2020 – The KGP Chronicle

Cleaning Automation Post COVID-19

IIT Kharagpur Develops Mechanised Mobile Broom for Cleaning Large Public Spaces

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Researchers at IIT Kharagpur have developed a vehicle-based mechanized broom to clean the 2100 acre campus area. The technology has been successfully tested across the campus during the present lockdown situation.

Named Sammarjak MB 4.2 this technology consists of two mechanized brooms in the front and one side, running on battery and solar power. It has the flexibility to move the dirt on roads in angular directions or in up and down direction to fit various road conditions.

Prof. Virendra K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur, has planned to deploy the vehicle to be used on campus as the administration expects to face a shortage of sanitation staff even after lockdown opens. Talking about the current labour situation on the campus, he said,

“We had restricted entry of a significant section of the workforce to our campus since late March. Further we have reassigned some cleaning staff towards sanitizing the key areas in the campus which are frequented by the residents. But considering our campus size we needed a substantial number of sanitation workers and this gap is being filled by automatizing the brooming system across all the pathways.”

He congratulated Prof. Mihir Sarangi who led this frugal innovation to keep the campus clean during the lockdown period.

“The system is highly flexible to suit Indian road conditions including those in semi-urban areas. Being an indigenously built technology we kept in mind the steep curves and undulations of Indian streets and made the brooms adjustable vertically and horizontally. Further we have added solar power charging in addition to the battery to keep the running cost low,” said Prof. Sarangi.

He is hoping this would enable organizations and public bodies, with budget constraints, to adopt the system.

Another key issue being addressed by this system is that of automation of public services. With the restrictions on movement of labourers and their uncertain health conditions, engagement of 30 per cent workforce to maintain social distancing norms as recommended by the government, cleaning and sanitizing large areas are becoming a concern for various public bodies and organizations. IIT Kharagpur envisions automation as the solution to address this challenge.

“To avoid any disruption or slowing down of productivity due to less labourers, it is crucial for our society to make a firm move towards automation, be it industries or the regular walk of life such as community maintenance mechanisms. This has been a reality in the developed nations and I do not see a reason why it cannot be ours,” remarked Director Tewari.

When asked whether such automation would reduce job opportunities, Director Tewari cited how the introduction of computers has revolutionized Indian job sector and the opportunities automation would create through new avenues and ancillary industries engaged in indigenous production.

Stepping-up Health Tech

IIT KGP and ICMR Collaboration for Mega Boost to Medical Technology Industry and Healthcare Ecosystem of India

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IIT Kharagpur is going to set up a Centre of Excellence on Medical Device and Diagnostics to foster innovation of affordable and indigenous medical devices and diagnostics in priority areas and promote entrepreneurship. The proposal has recently been accepted for funding of ₹20 crore by Indian Council of Medical Research.

In January 2020, ICMR had given a call for setting up a Centre of Excellence based on which IIT Kharagpur had proposed for the set up with thrust areas encompassing artificial intelligence in healthcare, medical devices for screening and diagnostics in healthcare, medical implants, biosensors in healthcare etc.

“We thank ICMR, the apex body of Government of India spearheading biomedical research, for entrusting us with this responsibility. We look forward to working closely with ICMR and making meaningful contributions through these efforts. We had a rewarding experience in engaging with ICMR through a pilot ICMR – IIT Kharagpur MedTech internship program that drew great interest among engineering and medical students,” said Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur.

India’s population size makes her healthcare challenges particularly the needs of the marginalized population in remote areas, unique, which require indigenous solutions. Accessibility and affordability have to be two key pillars of India’s medical technology development efforts. The coming together of ICMR and IIT Kharagpur is expected to give a big boost to already initiated R & D efforts at IIT Kharagpur that aim to lessen the burden of present pandemic. Further in the long run, this association will help the Institute achieve the goals set for the upcoming Dr. B C Roy Institute of Medical Science & Research, a R & D driven super-speciality hospital followed by the first of its kind medical college in the IIT system.

“Recently we heard that people residing in nearby areas of West Bengal and neighboring states of Jharkhand and Odisha are feeling hopeful that the burden of accessing healthcare facilities on patients and their families would be reduced with the upcoming superspecialty hospital of IIT Kharagpur. This can be taken further by catering to the need of a patient to visit a hospital through technology enabled healthcare at home and local level. The ICMR-IIT KGP Centre of Excellence will carry this responsibility forward with the much needed boost by bringing medical and technology domains together” said Director Tewari.

The centre will target to develop marketable technologies in a mission oriented time frame and use this experience to achieve longer-term goals to address challenging problems in the field of medical devices and diagnostics. Also, new intellectual property generation and a clearly defined licensing path will be the priority of the centre. Further the centre will try to extend medical technology related support to other organizations including different centres of ICMR.

For Project Information: Prof. Goutam Saha, gsaha@ece.iitkgp.ac.in

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Kgp Cares: Student Outreach

Campus Lockdown: How IIT KGP is facilitating students on-campus and beyond

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IIT Kharagpur has recently sent about 35 students to their hometown in Kolkata. This is one among the several student outreach initiatives taken by the Institute administration in the past two months while the campus adopted social distancing followed by the nation wide lockdown.

Classes at the Institute have gone digital since March 17 in the process of following social distancing. Following the lockdown announcement on March 24, all classes were moved to web-conferencing mode, video lectures of NPTEL, or through email. The academic calendar was also revised with the final semester examination scheduled in July and Autumn semester in August end. Further the Moodle platform was made accessible from outside the Institute LAN for submission of assignments by students from outside the Institute LAN. A crucial part of academic programmes are internships which have been rearranged either in online form with corporate houses or at the Institute. Pre-final year students were offered to opt for internships at any department in the Institute on topics of their choice and as per project availability as part of the ongoing COVID19 e-Learning initiatives. But the initiatives undertaken by the Institute were not only limited to academics.

A quick look at the social media handles of Director of IIT Kharagpur, Prof. V K Tewari would give a glimpse of student outreach activities undertaken by the Institute extensively in the past few weeks. The Director has visited all the halls of residence and discussed with the students regarding their lifestyle and extracurricular activities while remaining indoors and maintaining social distancing.

“We take pride at IIT KGP for being a home away from home. I have visited my family members at the halls of residence for the past few weeks. We talked about how they are spending their time during lockdown, how to reduce the risk of infection, minimise social gathering and to ensure social distancing and hygiene norms just as we are doing during these visits. And together in our applause we said heartfilled thanks to the security staff, healthcare professionals, mess and sanitation workers and other essential service providers,” said Prof. Tewari.

Director interacting with girl students at a hall of residence

He has also been reaching out to the students and campus community through his social media handle and encouraging them to learn new skills, acquire new knowledge and pursue activities for which otherwise people fall short of time.

Taking the cue from the Director, many students have been keeping themselves busy in activities. Srijita Pal, PhD scholar at the Dept. of Mathematics has joined her friends to learn ballet to continue with a healthy lifestyle. She talked about several students in her hall of residence who are trying their cooking skills and it is not because of any disruption in mess services.

“Mess food continues to be usual but engaging in activities with a friend is helping us sail through the lockdown period,” she said.

Students leaving for Kolkata on IIT buses

In another initiative, the Institute has been arranging for students to return to their hometowns. At present there are more than 5000 students residing on the campus. Out of them close to 700 students have consented to go home. In the first installment, the Institute has arranged for two buses to drop 35 students to their hometown Kolkata. Further plans are being made to send the other students to their home locations across the country. Students opting to go home have been advised to stay in self-isolation for two weeks.

Talking about the initiative, Kinjal Bhattacharyya, research scholar at the Dept. of Civil Engineering said, “My decision to move to Kolkata was to support my parents in daily activities during this time of crisis. The Institute was kind to do all the arrangements from medical checkups, getting permission and arranging hassle-free travel with safe and sanitized institute buses. I will always be indebted to the institute for taking the initiative.”

His parents Supratip Bhattacharyya and Anuradha Bhattacharyya expressed their gratitude to the IIT KGP security and administration.

“Our son felt completely safe and kept us very well-assured during his stay in the campus. Also we are really happy that he is back now to support us, kudos to the IIT KGP team for taking all the efforts to arrange safe and secure travel of my ward,” they said.

Aniruddha Saha at his hall of residence at IIT KGP

However, the majority of the students have decided to stay back at the campus. While Mouli Majumdar from the Dept. of Architecture and Regional Planning stayed back to complete her PhD project work, Aniruddha Saha from the Dept of Mechanical Engineering, who hails from Barrackpore felt that the campus would be a safer place to stay and would continue with his B.Tech. internship during the summer recess. The students did not have much to complain about except that they were missing their batchmates.

Ankita Gupta who recently reached her home at Basirhat said, “We were looked after quite well with the messes being open and interactions in small groups while maintaining social distancing norms. But being a 1st year M.Sc. student with my friends already away from the campus, I felt being at home would be happier though campus was safer.”

Deepak Verma attending an interactive session by the Director

The Institute has also distributed facial masks to students and made available necessary facilities well within residential boundaries. However, they are also allowed to move outside the hostel for 30-40 minutes, particularly for procuring essential items from the on-campus market. The halls are being sanitized as well at regular intervals with the service staff properly geared with PPEs.

The Institute has been maintaining regular contact with the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India through various platforms and apprising them about student outreach initiatives. The Ministry has set up a web-portal YUKTI (Young India Combating COVID with Knowledge, Technology and Innovation) wherein centrally funded higher educational institutions are to submit reports regarding the efforts and initiatives which have been taken in the wake of COVID-19.

Director, Prof. Tewari thanked Hon’ble Union HRD Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal “Nishank” for his initiative to connect with individual institutions to discuss the wellbeing of the students and campus community and motivate the leadership to continue with their responsibilities and work during these challenging times.

What’s Next for MSME

Adopting Industry 4.0 in MSMEs – The Way Forward in Post Pandemic World

On May 12, the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, in his COVID lockdown address asked the nation to be self-reliant. PM Modi was heard saying ‘be vocal for the local’ to emphasise the need for using indigenous products which would not only reduce our massive import bill but sustain our industrial sector especially Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). He announced a ₹20 lakh crore economic package which included a major stimulus to the post pandemic industrial world. Soon after, the Ministry of Finance announced details of the economic package in which out of the 15 relief measures, six were aimed to rejuvenate the lockdown-hit India’s enormous MSME sector.

MSME has stayed far from being the focal point of Indian industries, except for the textile brands and cottage industry, but it is the backbone of Indian economy. Going by statistics MSME units across the country employ more than 100 million people in the country and contribute close to 30% of India’s GDP and 50% of export revenue. It is not very difficult to forecast that India’s goal of a multi-trillion dollar economy cannot be achieved without further strengthening this sector. But amid the current COVID lockdown, MSMEs have been the worst hit. Even with the end of lockdown, staggered attendance policy to ensure social distancing would restrict MSME to start production in full strength. Availability of capital is another challenge. While the economic package announced by the Finance Minister would be addressing the capital issue but a technical perspective needs to be explored to address production issues.

Sustaining MSMEs in Post Pandemic World

Prof. Surjya K Pal who is heading the Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology at IIT Kharagpur points out at Industry 4.0 as a pertinent solution for MSMEs under the current situation and the way ahead.

“We can observe a clear change in demand and supply dynamics due to the pandemic situation. It has driven people towards panic buying of pharma and personal care products while demand for most other industrial products have witnessed a dramatic drop. This has been coupled with migration of the workforce to their respective home locations which would have a long-term effect. There are speculations regarding their return due to the uncertainty of their employment, travel and stay at the cities of work. Even when they return, deployment of the full workforce on the shop floor would not be a possibility because of social distancing as being suggested by experts,” he remarked.

To overcome the situation, new concepts befitting the post COVID world would be necessary. But despite the economic package, MSMEs would face constraints to avail skilled manpower, undertake R&D to develop new technologies to adopt new product lines and business models.

“This continued dependence on legacy machines would fall short in meeting the new market demands. They would need upgrades through Industry 4.0 solutions along with a skilled manpower,” opined Prof. Pal.

What is Industry 4.0?

Industry 4.0 is an umbrella of several digital tools such as cloud computing, big data, augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, deep learning, robotics, additive manufacturing etc. These have high potential for use in different industrial sectors and various phases of manufacturing to make headway into the process of automation, reduce production time and accelerate the return to normal business operations. Further this process transformation would also create more resilient business operations.

Prof. Pal terms Industry 4.0 as the new mandate for the entire industrial world and not only MSMEs.

“With social distancing and limited workforce, automation is the obvious avenue to meet production targets. Industries need to come up with strategies for such advanced manufacturing and how to apply them across various product lines to avoid facing COVID-like challenges in future. Such strategies are a global reality and in India we need to move ahead of concept mode and adopt them in practicality. However, we need to also consider the economic viability of the strategies for our industries, particularly the MSME sector,” he added.

But who is going to help the MSMEs to take this giant leap especially under the current socio-economic situation?

The Ministry of Finance has announced a ₹50,000 crore as equity funding into MSME sector aimed towards capacity expansion and for the purpose of market-listing. However, while MSMEs can bid on this opportunity, there would still remain the need for upskilling the workforce and developing technical solutions. To achieve the goals of self-reliance and import substitution as set by the Prime Minister of India, strategic infrastructure and policy development is required for enhancing human capability and R&D.

Role of Technical Institutions:

In a recent interview, Prof. Virendra Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur emphasised on the role of technical institutions in rejuvenating MSMEs through capitalizing on the R&D infrastructure and expertise and provision of training. [Read Full Interview]

Explaining this further Prof. Pal said, “academic institutes like IITs have to provide specific low-cost solutions for automation to the MSME sector to sustain their business as we pass through various phases of COVID pandemic. This could be retrofitting existing machineries to meet requirements of upgraded production and precision of process, quality of products and potential of the manufacturing setup to be used for dynamic production facilities. In addition, training of the workforce would help MSMEs adapt to digital tools of Industry 4.0.”

He further pointed out the spillover effect of such upgradation towards reduction in cost of production and making products more affordable for end users, impact demand supply dynamics and also creating avenues for new product development.

Centre of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing Technologies – taking the lead

IIT Kharagpur took a lead in achieving the aforesaid goals by setting up the Centre of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing Technologies supported by Dept. of Heavy Industries, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Govt. of India and an industrial consortium comprising six large scale capital goods manufacturers and a startup. The Centre has been designed to provide technological solutions, R&D facility in digital tools, new materials, additive manufacturing, automation, training of human resources engaged in production. The interdisciplinary Centre has been conducting training programmes on Computer Numerical Control and has also developed a training module for industrial robotics and other short-term courses and training programmes.

Talking about the activities at the Centre, Prof. Pal said, “The reliance on robotic industrial solutions in the post pandemic world will only increase. So will increase the need for new products and processes. For example, there would be the need for real-time and cost-effective assessment of product quality. We have developed an affordable solution to carry out this function by amalgamating basic products with deep learning and creating industry 4.0 solutions. We will also work towards ensuring accuracy of such products and processes.”

Automation induced directional change in employment

Reassuring the smooth continuation of industrial manufacturing through automation, Prof. Pal also dispelled the speculations of a distressed employment situation. MSMEs employ more than 75% of the workforce in the manufacturing sector. While automation would lead to downsizing the manpower requirement, through upskilling and re-skilling the workforce can be deployed in the new industrial environment.

His optimism echoed in his statement, “automation would lead to human resource requirements for maintenance of machineries with knowledge of digital functions of the machines. Further ancillary industries would evolve which would need skilled workforce.”

Director’s talk on rejuvenating MSME post-COVID

From the desk of Director, IIT KGP:

The post-COVID industrial world would wake up to a new dawn towards the involvement of MSMEs in re-energizing the industrial sector. This sector has a huge contribution in our manufacturing industry. However, as the pandemic situation leads to a new normal, availability of capital would become a challenge for MSMEs thus creating bottlenecks for jumpstarting industrial production and employment of labourers. Social distancing would also restrict employment of existing workforce in full strength. Further the low capital situation would delay new product development or sustenance of production at current costs thus disrupting the dynamic demands of industries and consumers.

This crucial situation can be addressed by the state funded technical institutions like IITs, NITs, central universities and research labs which can play a key role towards rejuvenating MSMEs. We have the expertise to start exploring the market demands and product requirements, based on the economic condition of industries, especially MSMEs. We can help them bridge the gap by innovating product designs for affordable items with large scale use. These could be PPEs, medical kits, sanitation items etc. which would obviously find a ready market. Also the capital goods sector is evolving. We have seen automobile sector is branching out into medical equipment. Hence the opportunity is enormous.

Other areas wherein technical institutions can intervene are capacity building and upgradation of shop floor technologies keeping in view limited budgets. We can develop applications for MSMEs to help them connect with demand and supply points, provide information updates regarding finances available, government and banking notices, market situation, latest technologies, thus creating an economic model.

Also we have to ensure that R&D of centrally funded institutes is channelised to the MSMEs or manufacturing companies engaging with the sector. This would require the focus of R&D to be outcome based, encompassing all technological domains, achieving significant levels of import substitution, benefiting the public at large and strengthening our economy.

Further, the MSMEs can be trained on high-end technologies to conduct experiments and design new products. Such units can also deliver trained personnel who can launch startups or help the manufacturing sector to upgrade their product and process design and production.

At IIT Kharagpur, we have set up one such training unit – the Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology, with support from the Department of Heavy Industry of Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Government of India, along with a consortium of top six industry members in the country.

However, all of these have a steep timescale and the initiatives need to be launched with a sense of urgency to help sustain the MSMEs in the coming months.

Chipping in

Students of IIT Kharagpur working with the Gopali Youth Welfare Society pool in their resources to rush both essential goods and protective gear to the underprivileged in Gopali and neighbouring gram panchayats

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The fight against Covid-19 is an unequal war, and no one understands that better than the students of IIT Kharagpur. Several of them associated with the Gopali Youth Welfare Society, an NGO run by IIT Kharagpur students and faculty members with the support of locals, have come together to raise funds to assist around 2000 families residing in and around Gopali. With the assistance of IIT Kharagpur faculty, they have also been able to distribute thousands of masks to those who need it the most.

Many of these students are at home but have been unable to get their mind off the situation in Gopali. “The GYWS president, Mr. Mrinal Kanti Bhanja, is a local and he apprised us of the fact that many families in the area were not even being able to have a square meal a day. Many of them do not have ration cards, and so cannot access government help,” said Tanishka Aggarwal, coordinator for GYWS and 2^nd year BTech student of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

The students pooled in money. Together with some contributions from the GWYS itself from funds that could not be spent as activities have remained suspended because of the lockdown, they put together a corpus of an amount above Rs 1 lakh. The money was ditigally transferred to the GWYS officebearers who, working with the Gopali Gram Panchayat, identified the beneficiaries and put together a team of 15-20 volunteers.

A week’s ration of rice, onions, potatoes, Nutrela and hand sanitizers was distributed by the volunteers to the 2000 families. Many of these families subsist by working for IIT Kharagpur. Some of these people work as ward boys in hostels, do the laundry or find employment as rickshaw pullers, domestic help within the campus or as labourers in the construction work undertaken by the Institute.

The students’ initiative has also ensured the distribution of 5,000 masks by GYWS in seven gram panchayats – Arjuni, Barkola, Hariatara, Khelar, Vetia, Kalaikunda, and Gopali. The masks were sourced from a production unit in Madhyamgram. Prof. Bhaskar Bhowmik of the Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship and Prof. D.K. Maiti of the Department of Aerospace Engineering have been key facilitators in the process. While Prof. Bhowmik helped source the masks from Madhyamgram, Prof. Maiti arranged for their transportation through the assistance of the Frank Ross unit in IIT Kharagpur.

Prof. Bhowmik said, “My friends, Ms. Mausumi and Mr. Sanjay Dasgupta, who are residents of Princeton, New Jersey, are engaged in various philanthropic activities globally and actively participating in various COVID 19 fundraisers. Through our various conversations, they decided to set up a mask production unit with the help of their friends, Mrs. Runa and Mr. Kaushik Ghosh in Madhyamgram. This also helped employ 6 unemployed tailors from that area. They have donated the first 5000 high-quality masks to us so that we could reach those who needed them the most. I am thankful to several other people, not the least to Prof. Maiti, who were involved in the process. What is most important is that we have been able to reach the masks to the grassroots – the labourers involved in MGNREGA – who cannot afford this basic protection against the virus.”

About 20 extra masks were handed to the panchayat pradhans. They were also offered N -95 masks with sanitizers for volunteers. About 500 masks will be provided to ASHA workers, police, BDO SDO office and other local government offices. Around 1000 masks are waiting distributed among various other people, some of them to Jagriti Vidya Mandir’s students.

Jagriti Vidya Mandir, located in Tangasool village that is a few kilometres away from the Institute is a school run by GYWS and has an enrolment of 240 students from Nursery to Class V. IIT Kharagpur’s students, organized into the school review committee, regularly monitors the activities of the school and also undertakes skill development among students.

“GYWS activities have become part of our daily schedule,” says Tanishka, who also mentions that students together with campus residents of IIT Kharagpur help organize Sports Day and Independence Day for the school students. “Students, organized into various committees and bodies, take care of various aspects of the running of GYWS,” explains Tanishka.

The student run NGO also has three or four cabs that were used for the transportation and distribution of the food stuff for the despondent families recently. “Now they are being made available to the local police whenever they require them,” said Tanishka, who is hoping that undergraduate, postgraduate and research scholars who are part of GYWS continue to keep alive efforts to reach out to Gopali’s underprivileged. Monalisa Sahu, also associated with GYWS and a 2^nd year BTech student of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, concurred, “Helping people to access the bare essentials is the least we can do.”

IIT KGP Lends Support to COVID Quarantine

The super-specialty hospital of IIT Kharagpur, to be named after Dr. B C Roy, has become COVID Quarantine Centre for Inter-state Travelers to West Bengal

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IIT Kharagpur’s super-specialty hospital has been busy for the past few weeks. While the facility is yet to be operationalized, who are these people walking into the hospital?

About a month back, with the announcement of the lockdown, a large influx of people moved to the borders of Bengal from various southern states with medical documents. They were patients and their families returning from Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Vellore after undergoing treatment or health check-ups. As per hygiene and safety protocols they were scheduled to be tested for COVID. But testing about 300 people would have taken extensive facilitation for the local state administration. Here is where IIT Kharagpur came to the rescue. About 9200 sq.m. area spread over two floors of the superspecialty hospital of IIT Kharagpur was made available to the district administration of Paschim Medinipur to be used as a quarantine facility for these passerbys.

The phase I of the IIT Kharagpur super specialty hospital was scheduled to start its outpatient department in June-July. Following this, the phase with 400 beds was planned to be extended with the launch of inpatient specialties encompassing Cardiology, Cardiac Surgery, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Orthopaedics, Medical & Surgical Gastroenterology, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Urology and Nephrology. The phase II was scheduled at a later stage with an additional 350 beds and Comprehensive Cancer Care, Radiology etc.

Registrar Prof. Bhrigu Nath Singh said, “We were ready with the structural construction though the handover from the construction company L&T was not taken due to some LAN, integration of modular OTs and few service lifts related works which are going on and expected to be completed shortly after lockdown period is over. Most of the medical equipment for OPD was already procured, hiring of medical doctors/visiting consultants/staff was going on since last year, advertisements were already placed for Medical Superintendent and Chief Administrative Officer.”

Due to COVID lockdown the plan had to be stalled. The work can now be resumed only after the situation normalizes following a revised schedule with the OPD launch expected to be postponed until the end of this year.

Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur who has been busy reaching out to campus residents and students in small groups shared his delight to have been able to facilitate this initiative.

“The upcoming hospital is rightly being used to serve its cause towards the healthcare of the people even before its launch. We received a request from the office of the District Magistrate about three weeks back and immediately communicated our agreement towards it. We are in contact with district administration and the local community and ready to offer necessary help within our capacity,” he said.

What made the hospital appropriate for COVID quarantine?

Vaibhav Chaudhary, IAS, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Kharagpur said, “We had about 300 people coming in after the lockdown was implemented and they were stuck at the border as they could not travel further into the state without being tested for COVID. While we could test 50 samples in a day, we needed a facility to accommodate the others. The hospital facility was well suited for the purpose with the huge available area, built-in structure, adequate toilets, electricity. Even the elevators were put into operation.”

He further remarked, “the location of the hospital was a vantage point as it is away from inhabited rural areas due to which we could avoid any speculation among the local community regarding accommodating these people.”

Chaudhary confirmed building temporary wooden compartments to ensure social distancing within the allocated areas. The district administration had also arranged for meals and other necessary items for those accommodated in this facility.

“We shall continue to use the facility for further batches of people coming in for reasons as considered acceptable to the state administration,” he added.

Left with a new hope

This initiative inadvertently has given a preview of IIT Kharagpur’s superspecialty hospital to the people for the first time. Those who were quarantined at the facility were not only overwhelmed witnessing the facility but also left with the hope that they might just find the answer to their prayer for best-in-class healthcare well within their reach and budget. Many of them, who are native of various remote areas in the districts of southern West Bengal, have to frequent hospitals elsewhere in India. Apart from the financial burden the journey itself takes a toll on their health. They are now pinning their hope that this hospital would become the one-stop facility for their healthcare needs.

And the corona war continues

The Indian Air Force on Sunday (May 3, 2020) held flypast and showered flowers at the Institute’s medical facility to salute the corona warriors.

The Institute apart from delving in R&D to fight COVID-19 is also engaging in social outreach to help large sections of people. Last month IIT Kharagpur also launched an initiative to support about 10000 people around the campus who are dependent on the campus for their livelihood through various temporary jobs. The alumni of the Institute are donating funds generously to sustain these people who are affected by the COVID-19 lockdown for a few months through supply of food and essential items and PPEs. The Institute has also contributed Rs. 1 crore to the PM Cares fund raised from employees and other sources. A disinfection tunnel for inbound vehicles and good carriers has also been built coupled with WHO approved sanitization facilities such as hand wash, appropriate use of PPEs.