India plans to double testing capacity through new project: C-CAMP

India aims to double its testing capacity through a project called indigenisation of diagnostics (InDx).

The project, which is launched in Bengaluru and anchored at Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), plans to manufacture all reagents needed for RT-qPCR-based and other molecular methods of diagnostics of Covid-19 in bulk quantities and at much lower costs, said C-CAMP in a press release.

The project aims to build a robust supply-chain network of Indian micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) capable of producing reagents for testing kits, and manufacture testing kits.


According to C-CAMP, the project involves identifying bottlenecks in the supply-chain network, short-falls in quality levels and gaps in the ability of these MSMEs to scale-up.

There is an urgent need to scale up the production of RT-PCR and other molecular diagnostic testing kits in the country given that India has a population of more than 1.3 billion. said C-CAMP.

The Rockefeller Foundation has provided financial support for the project executed by the Bangalore Life Science Cluster, which would improve access to Covid-19 diagnostics across the country.

The project would hand-hold MSMEs in meeting both quality and quantity such that the network would be able to put together a million indigenous kits a day. It employs a dynamic digital supply-chain platform developed pro-bono by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

"This is a multipurpose project addressing not only the Covid-19 crisis, but aimed at helping MSMEs to expand their business opportunities and to improve the overall healthcare system by developing more high quality, but low cost molecular diagnostics," said K VijayRaghavan, the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Govt of India, who is overseeing India's efforts of indigenisation of biomedical products.