The Covid-19 pandemic has catalysed, rather unexpectedly, the evolution of many industries and technologies in India.
Encumbered by an extended lockdown, people are seeking new solutions to routine tasks, be it food-delivery, medical consultations, or education.
“Consumers’ uptake of technologies, to stay informed or safeguard their health, can instill confidence in a stressful period, and this may be the unforeseen catalyst to assert broader, longer-term adoption of technology platforms and solutions,” said Nicole Corbett, director of intelligence at market research firm Nielsen, in a recent note.
Brands, too, are trying to reach out to the consumers who are confined to their homes. For this, novel alliances are being forged between the old and new.
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Supermarket chain Big Bazaar, for instance, has partnered bike aggregator Rapido and food delivery service Scootsy to deliver essential goods. Consumer giants like Marico, meanwhile, are hitching a ride on food aggregators Zomato and Swiggy for delivery of products.
Even the government is adopting newer methods for surveillance that may, in the coming days, become the new normal.
Quartz here provides glimpses into some of these new technologies that have abruptly become mainstream in India, all thanks to coronavirus and the lockdown it has brought about.
Telemedicine
This emergent field has, for a while, allowed healthcare professionals to diagnose patients in remote locations over smartphones and video calls. Now, it is not only having its moment in the sun, but fast becoming a part of daily life in the country.
Startups like Practo, Portea, and Lybate, which facilitate remote medical checkups, are witnessing a traffic bump as panicked Indians reach out to doctors over the mildest of symptoms. They are “trying to keep a social distance so that the virus doesn’t transmit in nursing homes, and hospital waiting rooms,” Alexander Kuruvilla, chief health strategy officer at Practo, had told Quartz earlier in March.
Realising its inevitability, India’s ministry of health, on the first day of the lockdown, March 25, released a 50-page document outlining new guidelines for telemedicine.
On March 29, Practo announced that residents of Mumbai could book government-authorised coronavirus tests on its platform for Rs4,500 ($60). Four days later, rival Pristyn Care, too, partnered with over 50 laboratories across the Delhi National Capital Region, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, and Hyderabad to conduct Covid-19 detection tests.
Beyond coronavirus-related concerns, people are also turning to calls and chats for other issues. Diabetes care and management app BeatO is trying to emulate the real-life experience by giving patients the option of adding their regular doctor to the platform.
Meanwhile, Meddo Health, which lists over 200 doctors across 16 specialties, has opened up its platform to doctors free-of-cost. “By offering this platform to doctors for free, we want to help get timely medical attention to as many patients as possible; not only related to Coronavirus, but also any other chronic or episodic ailments,” said Saurabh Kochhar, Meddo Health co-founder and CEO.
Source: Quartz