IIT Kharagpur’s Covid-19 diagnostic machine ‘Covipar’ gets ICMR certification

“Covirap - #Covid19 testing machine developed by @IITKgp has been certified by @ICMRNICED. Affordable & portable this machine can be operated by minimally trained people. The testing process can be completed within 1 hour,” IIT Kharagpur said in its official Twitter handle.

“I am glad the researchers from IIT Kharagpur have achieved the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat through this medical technology innovation. I congratulate Prof  V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur, and the research team led by Prof. Suman Chakraborty and Dr. Arindam Mondal for this path-breaking innovation taking molecular diagnostics from high-end labs to the field,” union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said.

This new testing method implements a highly reliable and accurate molecular diagnostic procedure, conducted in an ultra-low-cost portable device unit. With this innovation, accurate COVID testing at affordable prices will be available to common people. Each testing will cost Rs500/- which can be further reduced through government intervention. This total cost of the machine is less than Rs 10000/- with the minimal infrastructural requirement.

The research team was led by Professor Suman Chakraborty and Dr Arindam Mondal. The new machine was rigorously tested with patient samples by an authorized ICMR laboratory by following their strict guidelines.

IIT Foundation, USA provided financial support to meet the various expenses in the clinical testing phase. Partial financial support has also been provided from the Common Research and Technology Development Hub on Affordable Healthcare, established by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India, at IIT Kharagpur.