Nasscom CoE-incubated DronaMaps, BlinkIn help combat challenges posed by COVID-19

Two start-ups incubated at the Nasscom Centre of Excellence IoT and AI -- DronaMaps and BlinkIn -- are working with governments and administrative bodies to combat challenges posed by the deadly coronavirus that has claimed thousands of lives globally. DronaMaps has developed a live dashboard to track COVID-19 patients and their activities, and is working with Haryana and Punjab governments.

The start-up from CoE Gurugram also offers an administrative dashboard with advanced features like location tracking, geofencing and predictive analytics. BlinkIn from CoE Bengaluru has provided remote tech support to install air handling units at the COVID-19 field hospital in Wuhan at a time when the city was locked down.

"When these young start-ups help fight a pandemic by using the latest technologies, we realise that the efforts of Nasscom CoE towards Digital India are moving in the right direction. I would like to congratulate the team of DronaMaps and BlinkIn for their products that are helping in tracking the cases," Dr Ajai Kumar Garg, Senior Director at Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said in a statement. Utkarsh Singh, co-founder of DronaMaps, said to flatten the curve of the number of cases with the disease, it is important to track the positive cases, suspected cases, quarantined individuals, hospitalised cases, among others.

He said all suspected cases are constantly monitored through social media or VLR (call records). "This ensures officials are aware of the places they could have visited and by detecting the mobile phones close to the patient's phone, the people who have been in close physical proximity with the patient.

"In addition, predictive spatial analysis based on granular spatial and temporal data can be used to estimate which areas would need additional resources," he added. BlinkIn's remote technology helped the Huoshenshan Field Hospital in Wuhan fight coronavirus.

Its technology XCare was used to remotely monitor and manage air handling units in Huoshenshan Hospital, an emergency field hospital constructed to specifically cater to patients. The industrial province of Wuhan was the first major city to report a massive outbreak in cases earlier this year.

Since then, coronavirus has spread across the world and claimed thousands of lives. The number of COVID-19 cases climbed to 979 in India on Sunday, with the death toll rising to 25, according to the Union Health Ministry. "BlinkIn's intelligent visual-assistance company played a key role by providing its tech support to address the crisis. It helped service engineers of Huber-Ranner to install air ventilation systems in two hospitals in Wuhan, remotely," Harshwardhan Kumar, co-founder of BlinkIn, said.

Nasscom Center of Excellence – IoT and AI is part of the Digital India Initiative to jumpstart and drive the emerging technologies ecosystem in India. The main objective of the CoE is to help Indian deep-tech start-ups and companies leverage cutting-edge technologies to build market-ready products.

Nasscom CoE was set up in July 2016 as part of the Digital India initiative of MeitY, and has centres in Bengaluru, Gurugram and Gandhinagar..

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