Apr 26, 2020
Humanity versus Corona virus: Tribute to Indian Start-ups
Today, we are living in unprecedented times where a virus has disrupted our supply chains, production, and trade. It has brought the world to a standstill. India Inc. too has stopped! At the stage where India counts for more than 20,000 people in the grip of disease and 650+ deaths across, all the incumbents, as well as emerging companies, have joined hands to fight the menace. Today, we salute and pay our tribute not only to the front-line warriors but also to the start-ups who have re-purposed their business models, products to make sure we are safe at home!
MyLab Discover Solutions Pvt Ltd paved the way forward and joined hands with Kiran Majumdar Shaw’s Syngene International to manufacture and supply 1 lakh testing kits. Each kit can be used to test 100 patients. Mylab PathoDetect COVID-19 Qualitative PCR kit screens can detect the infection within 2.5 hours, compared to seven-plus hours taken by current protocols.
The new normal sets in as India made usage of masks compulsory for the people. A critical shortage of N95 masks can be anticipated and the problem was taken head-on by a Delhi based startup Nanoclean Global. It played a pioneering role in responding to the shortage by providing masks for the safety of medical professionals who have left their homes to service the infected people day and night. Collaboration between Indian start-ups has never seen a brighter day. One such example is the joint effort between Satsure, ThinkAg, Numer8 , and Krishi Hub, where they have come together to create a non-commercial map to bring all stakeholders in the agri-supply chain on a single platform (sellers, buyers, agri-machine providers, cold storage providers) mapped by location.
Another startup that has displayed its technical frontier is Bangalore based Turtle Shell Technologies who has distributed 250 Dozee small health monitoring devices to locals, free of charge. This device makes use of very recent technology AI for analyzing the signals sent to it captured from users
Movement of goods has been curbed, given the stringent country-wide lockdown. However, one supply chain has to keep running: food. Agri-start-ups has risen up to the challenge and made sure that farm-produce are collected and delivered to the end-users efficiently. Lack of labor for sowing and harvesting have impeded the farming activities. Disrupted supply chains have halted the farming activities of selling stock as well as buying new seeds for the next cropping season. Here, AgriBazaar E- Mandi came as a relief to farmers by operating across 16 major states and providing a platform to farmers to sell their farm yield without involving middlemen, carriages, and connecting 10,000 traders and processors. Several Farmer Producing Organizations (FPOs) have taken the first step and the responsibility to reach out to the rural and their nearby urban sections and make sure that people have their essentials in place.
While start-ups like Ninjacart, De Haat, and Big Basket made sure that the farm-linkage and aggregation of farm-produce are unharmed, organizations like Swiggy, Zomato, and Dunzo have re-purposed their model and have been working hard to bring groceries to our doorsteps. Tan90 is also working end to end to provide portable cold storages to the grass-root farmers, and aggregators keep their greens fresh.
Not only the start-ups, but all players in the ecosystem have also come together in these challenging times. Incubators, accelerators, and investors have come together to form consolidated funding portals to push new inventions in the market. Re-iterating our Honourable Prime Minister, if one thing that we have learned from this pandemic, is to be self-reliant. Start-ups mentioned above, and many others have come forward and are pushing the vision of Make In India, Skill India, and Start-Up India to reality.
The objective of the above report is not to advertise or market any company, organization, tradename, or any products, but to bring some positive vibes and make people look up for a brighter future. The above report has been authored by Sakshi Garg. She is pursuing her MBA from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and has been providing her valuable inputs to Tan90 in improving their products and their outreach.
