Drone-Based Vaccine Delivery Model: i-Drone | 05 Oct 2021

Why in News

Recently, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched a Drone-Based vaccine delivery model named, Drone Response and Outreach in North East (i-Drone).

• Drone is a layman terminology for Unmanned Aircraft (UA). There are three subsets of Unmanned Aircraft- Remotely Piloted Aircraft, Autonomous Aircraft and Model Aircraft.

Key Points

• About:
  
  • Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has devised the model to make sure that life-saving vaccines reach everyone.
  • It has been designed to facilitate vaccine delivery to tough and hard-to-reach terrains of India.
  • Currently, the drone based delivery project has been granted permission for implementation in Manipur and Nagaland, as well as union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Island.
    
    • The permission was granted to the ICMR for conducting feasibility study of Covid-19 vaccine delivery using drones, in collaboration with IIT-Kanpur.
• Significance:
  
  • It will help in overcoming the gaps in current vaccine delivery mechanisms and can be used in delivering important life-saving medicines, collecting blood samples etc.
  • This technology can also be used in critical situations. It can be a game changer in addressing the challenges in health care delivery, particularly health supplies in difficult areas.
• Other Projects Using Drones:
  
  • Telangana government has selected 16 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) for pilot testing the ambitious ‘Medicine from the sky’, the first-of- its-kind project.
  • The International Crops Research Institute (ICRISAT) was permitted to deploy drones for agricultural research activities, apart from some agriculture universities and educational institutions.

Source: PIB