The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
BHUBANESWAR/ANGUL, AUG 16, 2023
In a bid to reduce the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in Angul district, JSP Foundation, the social arm of Jindal Steel & Power (JSP) joined hand with the District Administration to launch a technology-driven initiative “Project SPARSA” on Tuesday.
Inaugurating the project, Odisha Industries Minister Pratap Keshari Deb handed over the Digital Diagnostic Kits to ANMs of 200 Health Sub Centres in the district, in the presence of Angul District Collector Siddharth Shankar Swain, Superintendent of Police Sudhanshu Sekhar Mishra, CDMO Dr. Trilochan Pradhan, Jindal Steel and Power President & Group Head (CSR) Prashant Hota and other senior officials of the district.
The project involves providing female health workers with a kit of connected medical devices and training them to use these to conduct diagnoses of pregnant women during their regular visits. The kit contains digital weighing scale, digital sphygmomanometer, digital haemoglobin meter, digital glucometer, foetal heart rate monitor and urine dipstick testing materials. All these diagnostic equipment are connected to the mobile phone through Bluetooth. The data collected will be captured via a mobile App and updated in a central database in real-time.
Appreciating Jindal Steel & Power Chairman Naveen Jindal and JSP Foundation Chairperson Shallu Jindal for partnering with the Angul District Administration for such an innovative programme in the district, Minister Deb said that it could be replicated in other parts of the State.
Angul Collector Siddharth Shankar Swain who played a crucial role in conceptualising this project, highlighted the various features of this project.
Superintendent of Police Sudhanshu Sekhar Mishra and CDMO Dr. Trilochan Pradhan extended their best wishes for the programme’s success.
Speaking on this occasion, JSP’s President and Group Head (CSR) Hota said, “This initiative is aimed at empowering and training grass root health workers to combat high-risk pregnancies and support lactating mothers in Angul district. We are leveraging digital technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve the quality of life of people. We hope this project will help ensure safe motherhood by identifying high-risk pregnancies and facilitating their treatment.”
JSP and JSP Foundation have introduced a range of developmental initiatives in the Angul district, aiming to enhance the well-being of the local population. Among these initiatives, Kishori Express, an innovative intervention targeting the reduction of anaemia among adolescent girls in the district, has garnered recognition and praise from various quarters.
