We all know how badly the coronavirus infection has hit the world. Our very own nation, India, is also under a complete lockdown since a long time now, and despite all the efforts, the count of corona positive patients is constantly rising with each passing day. As the Covid-19 continues to evolve, having a good knowledge of the outbreak, symptoms, preventive hygiene practices, and the implications of the outbreak is becoming all the more imperative for each one of us. To that end, we, at the K.R. Mangalam University, one among the Top Ranked Universities in Haryana, have taken an initiative to instill in our students the knowledge of COVID-19 so as to enable them to spread awareness in the society.

We, at KRMU, believe that educating students about the facts and misconceptions of the outbreak along with its risks and statistics would enable them to disseminate valid information that matters a lot to our lives and livelihoods in these unprecedented times. We believe that once armed with the knowledge, our students can educate a larger group of people, and in turn, benefit the community as a whole. This is why we have launched a project titled, “Unlocking the Lockdown: Interdisciplinary Focus on Covid-19’s Impact and Global Responses”. This trans-disciplinary project aims to explore the various facets of Covid-19 outbreak and its impending impacts on varying perspectives.

Through this project, we aim to bring in an immensely satisfying, meaningful, and enriching experience for our students. We are striving to provide a broad set of themes to our students to help them gain in-depth knowledge about the existing pandemic and encourage them to come up with relevant solutions for the same. There are a set of projects under the main title, and each project will bring active participation of students in respective topics, giving them profound insight into the situation.

• Portrayal of Covid-19 as an epidemic/disaster studies the impacts of risks and spread of coronavirus in the society along with developing solutions to administer relief operations. It aims at finding if innovative technological solutions like Drones Sanitization and ML can help mitigate the effects of the pandemic and prepare the society for the future.
• Nature of Epidemic – Past vs Present analyzes the corona crisis in terms of transmission, symptoms, treatment strategies, fatality, rate and the proportion of infected people. This would give an insight into whether India’s epidemic model of COVID-19 is tackling the outbreak successfully.
• Conversion of Community Spaces into Quarantine Zones addresses the need for redefining the spaces around us for precautionary measures and medical attention.
• Life Cycle of Covid-19 – Stages and Treatment would shed light on the unprecedented speed of transmission and progress of the virus.
• Projects based on Health, Hygiene and Immunity Boosters during COVID- 19 will allow students to derive a deeper understanding of the preventive and control practices carried out during this outbreak.
• Projects addressing the mass evacuation, moral as well as legal obligations caused by the crisis in various countries would bring an insight into the threat the world would face if Covid-19 is left to emerge as a biological weapon or a legal weapon against people.
• Students addressing about COVID-19 and Global Economic Recession would provide an insight into the impending impacts of the global pandemic in the Indian economy and how it would affect businesses in the aftermath.
• The project based on Narratives and Media on Pandemic: A Contextual Study on Covid-19 focuses on the dynamics of media in spreading information, either authentic, controversial, or fake news. It will evaluate if the media providing awareness to the public or creating mass hysteria?
• Starting Afresh: World after COVID-19 focuses on the chronology of the pandemic, refuted theories, and stories of survivors, detailing the mistakes and precautions that should be taken into account while dealing with any future pandemic situation.

With the help of these projects, we, at K.R. Mangalam University, are trying to educate our students about the prevailing crisis and its impacts on various aspects of life. Dedicating their time and efforts in projects like these would allow our students to contribute their bit to curb the pandemic by spreading the knowledge and awareness to the little world around them.