Meet the senior woman technologist who's leading the fight against Covid-19

Nivruti Rai of Intel has spearheaded a tech-driven vision of a Pandemic Response Platform for India, conceived as an open API-based multi-cloud infrastructure that enables several citizen-centric apps

In addition to her usual role of steering research and development, innovation and business enablement in the country, Nivruti Rai, country head for India and VP for data platforms group at Intel is heading another important mission this year. She is leading the Nasscom taskforce in its fight against Covid-19 by leveraging technology. 

The task force is focused on creating a single directory of people and companies working on utilising data and technology for Covid-19 management, which will be accessible to anyone who may need it. It consists of more than 40 companies including Intel, Infosys, Accenture, Wipro, SAP and Tech Mahindra. 

One such initiative is a technology-driven vision of a Pandemic Response Platform for India. The platform has been conceived as an open API (application program interface)-based locally hosted, privacy-preserving, multi-cloud infrastructure that enables a multitude of citizen-centric apps. 

This pandemic response platform is designed to augment the central and state governments’ efforts with a set of Covid-19 indicators that help predict outbreaks and improve medical care administration.

“This platform has the capability to collect a lot of data that is readily available and those that come from the government. We will be able to create a health risk score aggregated at ward, city, state and country level,” says Rai. “This will enable us to track, monitor, and control (Covid-19) based on this data and AI modelling.” 

For instance, it can give information like how many cases are expected to come up in a particular ward in the next 14 days, and how many of them would include ICU (intensive care unit) patients. Basis that, one can find out of the hospitals in the areas has that kind of ICU capability. 

An alumnus of University of Lucknow and Oregon State University, Rai said, the platform would help in better healthcare management of hospitals and cities. The task force team has also come up with a lung scan, which will add to the comorbidity data of the people and add that to the risk score. Rai is also supported by advisors such as Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman of biotech major Biocon and Infosys co-founder and angel investor Kris Gopalakrishnan for building such platforms.

The pandemic response platform is designed to benefit the central and state governments and boost their efforts by analysing a diverse set of indicators that can predict certain outbreaks and advance medical care administration. The platform will provide real-time streaming of data about the pandemic, across regions and states. It sources this data from public sources that include select social channels, websites, blogs, forums and public data sets to create actionable reporting dashboards. This will allow the government to project insights sourced from the information with public datasets display on command centre screens.

The end-to-end platform was recently provided to the governments of Karnataka and Telangana.

Intel India is also working with India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) to deploy its client server solutions to help achieve faster and less expensive Covid-19 testing. This also includes coronavirus genome sequencing to understand the epidemiology, and AI-based risk stratification for patients with comorbidities.

“We keep hearing about personalised treatment. This (collaboration) will enable us to understand how to give treatment to a certain person. What is the kind of (prognosis) that they are making using AI-based technology,” says Rai.

The other initiative includes the maker community within Intel India which has come together to design 3D printed parts for PPE (personal protective equipment) such as face shields. These 3D printed components are being used as templates for low-cost silicone moulded plastic parts to be produced locally to address the shortage of PPE for healthcare workers.

Intel India employees are also engaged in volunteering activities with various NGOs involving efforts on the ground such as the distribution of food kits and face masks, and conducting virtual classes for students. The Intel Foundation had also launched a special match opportunity for employees, offering up to a total of $2 million in matching donations for Covid-19 relief efforts in countries with major Intel sites, including India. 

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