Transasia's Remarkable Achievements in COVID-19 Testing and Manufacturing in India

ETHRWorld I 31 July, 2020 :  The last three months have led to the evolution of a new world! A world where namaste is the new hello and where our study table is the new workstation. A world where our living rooms have become the new board rooms and where masks have become the new fashion statement! Welcome to the world of the new normal!

And while we have all felt the impact of this new world; a by-product of the corona pandemic; we are learning to balance efficiency with safety, while sustaining business continuity.

As a manufacturer of essential diagnostic equipment, our instruments and test kits are trusted for accurate and timely diagnosis of blood samples and for determining treatment decisions. We are proud that all through the national lockdown we were able to keep our products and services running, albeit with limited resources, and walk hand-in-hand with laboratories and hospitals.

The lockdown introduced many to the work-from-home concept. At times like these, the leadership team of an organization plays a pivotal role in ensuring that all organizational practices safeguard the physical, emotional as well as adaptive well-being of their employees.

I strongly believe that collaboration is the golden key to business continuity. Within no time, we ensured that our employees were equipped with the necessary infrastructure and technology to keep things up and running. At the brink of the new financial year, we needed to meet our teams spread across the country, to reminisce the year that was while setting the flavor for the year to come! We quickly adapted ourselves to conduct virtual kick-off meetings which were attended by over 1,000 members of the sales and service teams, the teams at the Head office, and going a step further by our business partners!  This was followed by the business review meetings held at the zonal levels.

While the lockdown has unfortunately put a lot of companies in the doldrums and a lot of jobs at stake, we have continued to sustain stability and added to our strength by filling in 33 new positions in the last two months. Our onboarding 15-day program- Gurukul, was also conducted virtually to welcome 40 new employees.

Learning and development is a continuous process and we didn’t allow the lockdown to hamper it. Almost all of our 1000+ employees were offered multiple training sessions and we conducted a large number of virtual technical, clinical, and developmental sessions to keep our teams updated.  

And it is not just employees; their families have been our priority too. We adopted a holistic approach to their well-being. Virtual yoga sessions and talent contests such as Best from Waste and Drawing Competitions for the children of our employees were held to boost confidence and create hope among each other. The young artists were felicitated with gift cards.

While every business entity is planning its post-lockdown strategy, it’s necessary to establish systems that can protect people’s lives and simultaneously trigger economic progress. And now while we are slowly inching back to a phase of normalcy, it is essential to create a workplace environment that is safe and hygiene-focused. We started by first forming our taskforce to plan the safe return of the workforce that goes beyond just creating a physically safe workplace.

With uncertainty looming at large, our task force started by reassuring the employees with a detailed ‘future of work’ document followed by a training session on the same. Since social distancing of 6 feet plays a critical role in arresting the spread of the infection, we restructured the seating arrangements to ensure spaced-out workstations.

According to the CDC, appropriate hand-washing practices can reduce the risk of respiratory infections by 16%. It is important to educate the employees on such interesting facts and more. Hand sanitizers are being provided at multiple locations at our office. Besides, awareness posters on WHO laid down guidelines now adorn most of our walls.

The provision of masks and on-ground health monitoring is helping us keep a check on the well-being of our employees. Since most people bond over food, we are following a staggered lunch-time so that only a minimum number of the employees are together, at the same place, at the same time. Additionally, all seating arrangements in the cafeteria have been restructured to maintain a distance of 6 feet.

Did you know that, proper commercial cleaning reduces the risk of employees catching infections by as much as 80%? These stats would never have been more relevant than now! And we are ensuring we take them seriously, with deep sanitization of the office premises every week.  

Commuting to work during these times greatly puts our employees at risk. Considering that in Mumbai, people travel from all corners of the city and the outskirts for work, we have made special provisions for well-sanitized, reserved buses catering to all nearby and far-fetched routes, within the purview of the laid-down guidelines.

It is not just the physical aspect, we are paying special attention to overall wellness. The last few months have led to increased levels of anxiety due to uncertainty. A recently held worldwide survey indicated that worries about job losses were highest in India!  In these unprecedented times, we are assuring our employees of secured jobs.

In fact, we leveraged the opportunity of the lockdown to upgrade some of our employees and equip them with laptops to enable flexibility and improved productivity.

My key message to all those who have been erstwhile working from home, and at the brink of resuming work back in offices, is that we cannot fight COVID with fear. It’s time to get back to routine and deliver, with safety as the foremost criterion.  

Change is difficult and painful for some, more than others. New work practices have emerged in recent times. While some are being accepted, others are challenging. However, as I always tell my employees, there is no new normal. This is the normal, which we have to accept and live with.

I am proud of my team of 1,500 Transasians, each one of them, whether at the manufacturing sites, sales, or working in offices across 25 locations in India, for responding well to this new way of working. Our employees have left us spellbound with their grit and determination to deliver against all odds!

While all our manufacturing facilities continued to work to meet the demands of the Indian and global healthcare customers, our R&D teams, in India, UK, and USA have been working round-the-clock to introduce the COVID ELISA test kits for early and accurate diagnosis. Not to forget, our sales and service frontline warriors, who attended to close to 30,000 Doctors and lab technicians, to ensure uninterrupted services.
The hard work of all these patriotic Indians over the last three months has paid high dividends:

• Transasia is proud to become the First Indian MNC to introduce COVID-19 Antibody ELISA kits that have been validated by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (Pune)
• Transasia has partnered with the Government of India to introduce iLAB, India’s First mobile lab for ELISA and RT-PCR testing for COVID-19. This lab has been built in a record 8 days and will be traveling to the heartland of India, providing free COVID testing. Along with the conceptualization of the van, Transasia is also responsible for equipping it with the latest diagnostic equipment and test kits
• Transasia has also set up a more than 31,000 sq feet factory at Andhra Pradesh Medtech Zone, Vishakapatnam, India’s first medical device manufacturing park. The factory is all set to manufacture 10 lakh ELISA-based test kits for COVID-19.

I guess that is what makes us India’s No. 1 In-vitro Diagnostic Company!

I feel no less than the Field Marshal of the Indian Army, who along with its battalion of courageous, passionate, and nation-loving jawans is out on the warfront. My team gives me the confidence, that our brave healthcare front-liners, fighting this war, have our back!

To sum up, I would like to reassure our customers, partners, and the communities in which we operate, that, Transasia remains committed to ATMANIRBHAR, Healthy India! 
I am more than confident, that when any Transasian, in any part of the country, is asked, How’s the Josh? The answer would only and only be “High Sir!”

About Transasia Bio-Medicals Ltd.: 

Founded in 1979, Transasia Bio-Medicals Ltd., India’s Leading In-vitro Diagnostic Company offers products and solutions in Biochemistry, Hematology, Coagulation, ESR, Immunology, Urinalysis, Critical Care, Diabetes Management, Microbiology and Molecular Diagnostics. 

Transasia provides doctors and patients with reliable, affordable, and innovative Medical Diagnostic Systems, with an impressive install base of above 70,000 equipment across 30,000 labs in India. Over 150 crore blood tests get done every year on a Transasia instrument. Its team of sales and service support is the largest in the Indian IVD Industry. The vast network of more than 300 service engineers, 400+ Sales and Marketing Teams, 25 zonal offices, and 350+ Distributors allow us to reach out to over 5000 tier II-IV cities, towns, and villages including the farthest northeastern regions. 

It is the first Indian company to manufacture and export blood analyzers and reagents, in the 1990s. Today, Transasia’s indigenous research has resulted in the development of state-of-the-art, ‘Make in India’ products and technologies, enabling its products to be among the best in the world. 

All along its journey spanning more than four decades, Transasia has been recognized for its commitment to healthcare. The Govt. of India has bestowed Transasia with the ‘The India Medical Devices Export Company of the Year' award. Besides this, Transasia was conferred the ‘Economic Times- Best Brand 2019’ amongst many others.

Headquartered in Mumbai, Transasia is a part of the global Erba Group. The Erba –Transasia Group has spread its footprint across the USA, UK, Germany, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Russia, and Turkey through various acquisitions.

Erba’s production sites in India, Czech Republic and USA and R&D centres in France, UK, India and Czech Republic form a hub for indigenous manufacturing of world-class deliverables. Today, the Erba -Transasia Group serves millions across 100 countries. For further information, kindly visit www.erbamannheim.com