NEW DELHI, INDIA, May 11, 2016 (by Jyotika Sood, Livemint): The kumbh is a Hindu religious fair where the highlight is a bath in the holy river, which is supposed to cleanse one’s sins. With smart parking, virtual darshan, coded entry, e-rickshaws, high-tech cooking, live video streaming, drone monitoring, 6,000 closed-circuit cameras with face and behavior detection, this year’s kumbh is a combination of the divine and the digital. The fair, which started on 22 April and goes on till 21 May, is also a platform for some home-grown start-ups to showcase their technologies.
State-owned Telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has laid around 100 km of optical fiber cables and associated equipment with 73 Wi-Fi hotspots. The district administration and kumbh organizers have jointly developed a mobile app with information on helpline, contact numbers, days of the full moon holy dip, and other important days. “We wanted to give a high-end technology experience to the people and make things very systematic. A parking solution is provided by one-year-old Delhi-based start up getmyparking.com. Pilgrims can choose their spots from 11 parking lots through a mobile app or by visiting getmyparking.com.
Healthcare start-up Medd is providing some preventive health checks for Rs.1 at its stalls near the venue. Visitors can download the Medd mobile app and register themselves for booking lab tests and scans. The health ministry has deployed a mobile telemedicine van with doctors and equipment to check blood pressure, diabetes and ECG, dermatology tests, ophthalmology tests, X-Ray etc. The van also works as a mobile health facility where doctors are consulted from far-off hospitals through video conferencing. The Indian Space Research Organisation monitors the kumbh through its satellites. The district administration said 300 e-rickshaws have been deployed to transport senior citizens and differently-abled people.