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Coronavirus pandemic | MHRD launches 'Samadhan' challenge to invite ideas to fight COVID-19

The challenge is open for student innovators, researchers, educators and startups to participate. The last date for applications is April 14.

April 08, 2020 / 09:40 IST
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Representative image
Representative image

The Innovation Cell of the Ministry of Human Resource has launched an online challenge ‘Samadhan’ to invite ideas and innovations that can help fight against the novel coronavirus that has infected over 4,700 people in India.

The challenge is open for student innovators, researchers, educators and startups to participate. The last date for applications is April 14.

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“Your ideas and innovations can be a force multiplier in these challenging times of coronavirus pandemic. I urge you all to come forward and help us combat coronavirus by participating in Samadhan Challenge. Together we can and we will make the difference,” HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank posted on Twitter on April 7.

The “mega online challenge” is categorised into two parts:

COVID-19 Vaccine
Frequently Asked Questions

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How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.
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