Odia Youth Develops Cost-Effective COVID-19 Testing Kit

Hyderabad: It comes as a moment of pride for Odisha as an Odia research scholar, Dr. Suryasnath Tripathy of IIT Hyderabad has developed a COVID-19 testing kit that costs just Rs 600 and can deliver results within 20minutes.

The cost-effective kit comes as a silver lining in the reeling healthcare sector.

Suryasnath is accompanied by another research scholar, Dr. Sushree P. Supraja under the guidance of Prof. Shiv Gobind Singh for developing the kit. IIT Hyderabad took to Twitter tagging PM Narendra Modi, Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, Science and Technology Department of the Central government and Ministry of Health informing them about the development.

This new kit is part of the three testing kits for COVID-19 being developed by IIT Hyderabad. While this kit was developed within a week, the other two kits will take about three to six months. The device has been sent to Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) Mumbai and the National Institute of Biologicals (NIB) Pune for evaluation. The kit can be transported quickly, enabling the test to be conducted at point-of-care.

Apart from being a research scholar, Suryasnath is a young writer and poet who has authored two books and is a winner of the Kendra Sahitya Academy Award adding to his literary credits.

Suryasnath, son of Santosh Kumar Tripathy and Jyotirmayee Devi, belongs to Sishua village under 42 Mouza area in Cuttack district. Since his childhood, he has always been excellent in studies and a bright student. Pursuing his dreams of higher studies, Suryasnath received his PhD from IIT Hyderabad.