IT Ministry Launches Challenge For Strengthening COVID-19 Vaccine Intelligence Network CoWIN

New Delhi: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Wednesday (December 23) announced the ‘Grand Challenge for Strengthening ‘CoWIN’ the COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network’, a digitalised platform for the effective national rollout and scaling up of the COVID Vaccine Distribution System. As per a statement, winners of the challenge will get rewards totaling Rs 3.85 Crores. Registration starts today (December 23) and is open for participants till 15th January 2021.

Also Read: Centre Develops ‘Co-WIN’ App To Self-Register For COVID-19 Vaccine

At the launch of the platform, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad invited innovators and startups for the grand challenge to strengthen the CoWIN platform for the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination program across India.

The challenge will be launched on the MSH (MeitY Startup Hub) portal, a collaborative platform developed under the aegis of MeitY towards building meaningful synergies in the Indian tech startup space.

Innovative startups and emerging technology specialists have been invited to augment and scale the CoWIN platform.

As per the statement, the MoHFW has identified seven focus areas of technology development to address the likely limitations associated with a complete and effective vaccine distribution system (VDS) and its seamless administration across India.

The top 5 applicants will be provided the CoWINAPIs (Application Programming Interface) to prove the efficacy of their solutions for possible integration with the platform.

Each shortlisted applicant at this stage stands a chance to win Rs 2 Lakhs covering their logistical requirements. The solutions once integrated with the platform through open APIs will be assessed for robustness and scalability, the statement said.

The top 2 contestants from the challenge will be rewarded with Rs 40 Lakh and 20 Lakh respectively after the successful migrations of the developed solutions on the cloud on which the CoWIN is hosted.

Also Read: Mutation In Coronavirus Not Likely To Affect Vaccine Development: Council Of Scientific And Industrial Research

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

NDTV – Dettol Banega Swasth India campaign is an extension of the five-year-old Banega Swachh India initiative helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. It aims to spread awareness about critical health issues facing the country. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign highlights the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children to prevent maternal and child mortality, fight malnutrition, stunting, wasting, anaemia and disease prevention through vaccines. Importance of programmes like Public Distribution System (PDS), Mid-day Meal Scheme, POSHAN Abhiyan and the role of Aganwadis and ASHA workers are also covered. Only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and become a Swasth or healthy India. The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene.