India in 32nd position in finding innovative solutions to fight Covid-19

India fell six spots to the 32nd place in the global coronavirus innovation rankings for countries, as per a report prepared by StartupBlink in association with Health Innovation Exchange, UNAIDS.

The report features the top-ranked 40 countries and 100 cities in the world based on innovative solutions developed to face the pandemic.

These rankings are for innovations made specific to the Covid-19 pandemic, and also take into consideration the population of the country – so the expectations from countries with relatively lower population are adjusted when comparing with countries that have a larger population.

Also read: Covid-19 vaccination: India crosses 49 crore mark in total doses administered

The innovations are segmented into different categories – prevention (vaccine, protective and sanitation, automation, etc), diagnostics (telehealth diagnostics, big data and profiling, test kits, etc), treatment (telehealth treatment, ventilator and medical devices, medication, etc), grants and support initiatives (grants, relief funds, hackathons and targeted challenges, etc), information (databases, crisis communication, etc), life and business adaptation (community and mental health, education, work, shopping, etc).

An innovation or a project is eligible to be listed if “it directly offers a scalable innovative solution” to any of the above-mentioned categories.

While the first edition of the report published in June last year ranked 32 countries and 80 cities across 1,000 innovations, the numbers have jumped this year to 40 countries and 100 cities and have considered more than 1,300 Covid-related projects.

India has two cities featured – Bengaluru, 49th rank, New Delhi, 55th rank – among the top 100 and has 15 Covid-related innovations mapped this year – four in ‘prevention’, three in ‘grants and support initiatives’, one in ‘information’, three in ‘treatment’ and four in ‘diagnostics’.

Also read: Novavax seeks OK for Covid vaccine in needy countries first

Among the most notable innovations from the country are OneBreath for treatment (ventilator and medical devices), CareMother for diagnostics (telehealth diagnostics) and Serum Institute of India for prevention (vaccines).

The number of innovations from India, however, is much lower when compared to the likes of the US, the UK and China.

The US remains on top of the list this year as well, with 405 mapped Covid-related innovations and five of its cities listed in the top 100. Among its most notable innovations are John Hopkins University for Information (databases), Moderna and Johnson and Johnson for Prevention (vaccines).

On the other hand, the UK has 50 mapped innovations, and it continues to stay in the sixth spot with two of its cities listed in the top 100.

China, however, has slid two spots this year to the 15th rank. The country has 24 mapped innovations (which includes Sinopharm for prevention (vaccine)), with four of its cities featuring in the top 100, this time.

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