Tata Group launches test kits to detect COVID-19

Tata Medical and Diagnostics Ltd (TataMD) on Monday launched new diagnostic testing for COVID-19 -- claiming it to be more efficient and simpler than the existing ones -- with the ability to scale up test on a large scale across the country.

The government-approved test, which can provide the final result within 90 minutes, will be manufactured at Tata's plant in Chennai in southern India which has the capacity to produce 1 million test kits a month, Krishnamurthy said in an interview.

To make the test available across India, the company is talking to hospital chains, diagnostic players and laboratories for partnership and it is ready with a monthly production capacity of 10 lakh units a month to start with at its Chennai factory.

"We have come to a solution which provides end-to-end testing experience. We make the testing much more efficient and reliable and scalable, that creates more access and availability. Moreover, this whole thing is developed in India," Tata Medical and Diagnostics Ltd CEO Girish Krishnamurthy told PTI.

In June, CSIR-IGIB came up with a breakthrough to detect the COVID-19 virus by gene sensing through innovation on a platform called FELUDA using the latest CRISPR technology, which is generally used for gene editing, he added.

The launch comes as India's COVID-19 cases rise by 45,903 to 8.55 million with deaths rising by 490 to 126,611, government data showed on Monday.

With inputs from agencies