Mumbai: In response to India’s urgent healthcare challenges, IIT Bombay and Blockchain for Impact (BFI) have established a strategic partnership to catalyse transformative projects and revolutionise the public health landscape in the country.
Given India’s large population and complex public health issues, challenges to India’s burdened healthcare system are mounting.
The collaboration is expected to address these challenges head-on and advance healthcare innovation and research to benefit millions across India.
The coming together of IIT Bombay and BFI is highly synergistic: IIT Bombay’s reputation for cutting-edge research and product development complements BFI’s mission to enhance the healthcare ecosystem by making medical facilities and essentials more accessible for all.
Prof Subhasis Chaudhuri, Director of IIT Bombay, underscored the significance of the partnership, emphasising, “IIT Bombay has always been at the forefront of innovation and this collaboration exemplifies our commitment to leveraging cutting-edge research to address pressing societal challenges.”
“By joining forces with Blockchain for Impact, we aim to accelerate the development and deployment of healthcare innovations that have the potential to transform public health outcomes in India and beyond.”
BFI will allocate USD 900,000 to IIT Bombay over three years to leverage the Institute’s expertise in creating accessible and affordable healthcare technologies.
The broader BFI-Biome initiative, a USD 15 million program for advancing biomedical research and innovation, will bring together leading researchers, technologists, and innovators to collaborate on solving pressing health challenges.
Through partnerships with renowned institutions such as IISc, CSIR-CCMB, BITS Pilani, Venture Center, AIC-CCMB, SIIC IIT Kanpur, FNDR, TCG CREST, and others, the BFI-Biome initiative supports translational research projects with the potential to revolutionise and enhance healthcare solutions.
Sandeep Nailwal, founder of BFI, said “By working with IIT Bombay, we have the opportunity to advance healthcare innovations that can positively impact public health on a massive scale. Together, we can support groundbreaking research projects and bring transformative solutions to communities across India and the Global South.”
Blockchain for Impact set up during the 2nd wave of COVID pandemic in India was created to help support those in need of help.
As the world’s most transparent healthcare fund, BFI initially worked towards strengthening the Indian healthcare system through a sustained supply of medical equipment, vaccines, and relief kits. However, after the COVID wave, the focus transitioned towards early identification and prevention activities which sufficed in capacity building, genome sequencing, adding hospital beds, vaccination, and awareness campaigns.
