TCS deploys blockchain platform to boost Covid-19 testing capacity

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Tuesday said it has deployed its blockchain-based digital supply chain platform for a new project at the government-run Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP).

The TCS platform will help C-CAMP build, manage and double its community of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to boost the indigenous production capacity of Covid-19 test kits to a million a day, a statement said.

The newly-launched project, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, is called Indigenisation of Diagnostics (InDx). It aims to build a supply-chain ecosystem of Indian MSMEs that are capable of producing large quantities of reagents and other components needed for RT-qPCR-based and other diagnostic test kits for Covid-19.

“The project entails eliminating supply-chain bottlenecks, and handholding MSMEs to help them bridge capability gaps, meet necessary quality standards and expand capacities to be able to indigenously produce a million test kits a day,” the statement said.

Launched in 2009, C-CAMP is an initiative supported by the centre’s Department of Biotechnology for research and innovation in life sciences. It facilitates bioscience research and entrepreneurship by providing research, development, training and services in technology platforms, as per its website.

TCS said its supply-chain platform is powered by its Data Marketplace solution. The solution facilitates standardized, controlled data exchanges across ecosystem participants with the necessary security and privacy protection, using blockchain at the back-end to ensure the immutability of audit logs, it said.

Read: TCS, Yale University develop blockchain framework to give data privacy back to users

At InDx, the solution aggregates test kit supply data of tier II and III manufacturers of kits, enzymes, primers and antibodies, and provides ready visibility to tier 1 suppliers as well as to C-CAMP on supplier-specific quality levels, capacities and inventories.

The capability allows C-CAMP to respond to the demand for the test kits from the government as testing programmes are ramped up across the country, the statement said. 

“The TCS Data Marketplace solution is the lynchpin that anchors InDx’s supplier ecosystem of micro, small and medium enterprises, democratizing supplier data, enhancing supply-chain visibility, and driving superior outcomes for all stakeholders,” Dinanath Kholkar, global head of analytics and insights unit at TCS, said.