[CA] Empowered Committee to speed up on COVID - 19 issues

Government of India has constituted a Science and Technology Empowered Committee to make speedy decisions on research and development of COVID-19. The Committee is to be chaired by Niti Aayog member Vinod Paul and K Vijay Raghavan. Mr. Raghavan is the principal scientific advisor to Government of India. The committee will coordinate with scientists, science agencies, regulatory bodies and industries.

The Committee has consented the institutes operating under Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Department of Atomic Energy, CSIR, DRDO and IIScs to prepare their labs towards research and testing of COVID-19.

The research of testing methodologies are to be stratified by the institutes based on the priorities set by ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research).

The medical institutes operating directly under the Central government have taken up the following researches:

·       Repurposing of drugs

·       Manufacturing ventilators and test kits

·       Models to predict medical equipment requirements, mathematical models to track the disease spread in the country.