** Ex-bank employees runs home delivery service for those in need

Jaggesh M.P gets the items and delivers it to their doorsteps.

Understanding the needs of such people, Jaggesh M.P., 30, a graduate in business management, has started home delivery service in Mudigere town in Chikkamagaluru district.

People place orders over the phone and Mr. Jaggesh goes around town on his bike to procure the items and deliver it their doorsteps and take service charge.

** Agri university alumni link mango farmers with urban market

The University of Agricultural Sciences’ Alumni Association has again stepped in to help farmers in distress on account of COVID-19 and the lockdown. The Association, which had lent a helping hand in marketing of grapes during the last year’s lockdown, has this time chosen mango growers for direct marketing assistance.

About 30 mango farmers have been identified by the Association for assistance in not just marketing, but also scientific method of harvesting of fruit and its ripening and packaging.

** IISc start-up gets regulatory approvals for new COVID-19 test

A COVID-19 test developed by PathShodh Healthcare, a start-up incubated at the Society for Innovation and Development (SID), Indian Institute of Science (IISc),has received the license to manufacture the test for sale from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).

The test is touted to be the first-of-its-kind, semi-quantitative electrochemical ELISA test for COVID-19 IgM and IgG antibodies, received the licence after due diligence validation at the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), Faridabad, as per the requirements of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), an IISc release said.

** Dharwad firm to manufacture Sputnik V

Dharwad-based Shilpa Biologicals Private Limited (SBPL) will manufacture Sputnik V vaccine at its production centre in Belur Industrial Area, near Dharwad.

It will be among the first production units of the Russian vaccine in India.

SBPL is an arm of Shilpa Medicare, one of the top suppliers of drugs in the country, established in 1987 in Raichur.

Sputnik V has been developed by the Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology of Russia.

Indian pharmaceutical company Dr Reddy’s Laboratory entered into a partnership with Russian Direct Investment Fund for the vaccine in India.

** ‘Oxygen on wheels’ in all districts

The State road transport corporations are ready to provide ‘Oxygen on Wheels’ services in all districts if private groups or NGOs come forward to sponsor oxygen concentrators and equipment required for providing oxygen inside buses, Deputy Chief Minister and Transport Minister Laxman Savadi said.

** Mysuru-based firm develops drugs to fight Covid

At a time when the Covid second wave is raging, a Mysuru-based company has developed a new set of drugs to combat the Coronavirus, and the advantage is that these drugs can be administered orally. DRM Innovations, has used artificial intelligence to develop the drug. A team of specialists, led by Dr Manjunath B H, MD of DRM,

Dr Basappa, Chairman, Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Department of Studies in Organic Chemistry, University of Mysore, and Prof Mahesh PA, Department of Respiratory Medicine, JSS Medical College and Hospital, has developed the drugs.

** Second Navy vessel with oxygen cylinders arrives at NMPT

The second Indian Navy vessel carrying oxygen and other medical aid from Kuwait arrived at the New Mangaluru Port on Monday.

According to a press release by the New Mangaluru Port Trust, the Indian Navy vessel INS Kolkata brought two containers with 20 tonnes of oxygen, 200 oxygen cylinders packed in 10 pallets of 10 ton and four 10-litre high flow oxygen concentrators. This was sent by Government of Kuwait to the Indian Red Cross Society for use in treatment of COVID-19 patients.