As many as 850 oxygen plants are being set up in various districts of the country from PM Cares Fund, according to Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence R&D, and Chairman, Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO). He spoke at the online discourse series New India @ 75, organised by National Council for Science & Technology Communication and Vigyan Prasar.

“We have established temporary hospitals specific to Covid-19 in many cities. These are modular hospitals, we call it flying hospitals, and these have been made in a way that the virus does not go out of hospitals. If there is any third wave, all the hospitals will be taking the load, and the government is discussing these aspects with various stakeholders,” said Dr Reddy.

He also underlined how DRDO is primarily carrying out research in advanced technology in defence and concentrating on developing high-quality technology that will benefit the people, at a lower cost to match the international level.

Prof Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, DST talked about various steps taken by the Central Government and DST to fight the pandemic and keep vaccines safe and ensure it reaches every nook and corner of the country. He also spoke about ways Artificial Intelligence (AI) could play a greater role in fighting the pandemic.

“Technologies have been developed for storing and transporting vaccines to every nook and corner of the country. New ways of storing vaccines have been developed as per the Indian conditions. Convergence of technologies is the future, and AI can play a great role in diagnostics, telemedicine and will have tremendous importance in remote monitoring, diagnostics and decision-making in fighting pandemic,” Prof Sharma said.

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