Do you know how frustrating it can be if you are passionate about something and yet, don't have access to professionals who could teach you? This is how Bharath Kumar Reddy felt as a kid, but thanks to his brother-in-law and the World Wide Web, he managed to learn all there was to learn about computers and, more importantly, ethical hacking. "By class IX, I was training other youngsters," says the 26-year-old and since 2014, he is a Certified Ethical Hacker by EC-Council (International Council of E-Commerce Consultants) who helps the Vijayawada police with cybercrimes. You can even find his name in the Limca Book of Records for conducting a 50-hour-long non-stop Cyber Security Marathon at PSCMR College of Engineering and Technology in the year 2017.
But why we got in touch with the Vijayawada-born this time was because of his simple and easy-to-use portal C19Raksha, which can tell you if you are at low, medium or high risk of contracting COVID — in two minutes flat. The youngster who pursued his BTech from Tirumala Engineering College, Narasaraopet, developed this website while he was in lockdown and launched it on June 10. All you have to do is go to their AI-powered portal c19raksha.in and answer the 11 questions they have for you. "These questions on symptomatic and asymptomatic behaviour were derived from the guidelines of WHO (World Health Organization) and ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research)," informs the youngster who is currently in Narasaraopet, Guntur district. Describing the purpose behind launching this portal, he says, "Many people are visiting hospitals to get tested and are getting infected because of it. I wanted to come up with a solution for this."
Upon answering questions like 'Do you have a cold?' and 'Do you have diarrhoea?', the portal will give you the assessment report. If you are in the low-to-medium risk category, the website will give you various precautions that you must heed to to keep yourself and others safe, and if you are in the high risk category, your details are immediately forwarded to the medical surveillance department," Bharath informs. So far, over 90,000 people have used this platform and about 270 have been detected as being at high risk.
Another thing to note about Bharath is that he also runs a Bengaluru-based start-up called Spyry Technologies, which he started in 2017, which conducts Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) for enterprises. Currently, with his 17-member team, he is working on some big projects and is also writing a book.
Some questions C19Raksha asks:
- Do you have body aches and chills?
- Do you have headaches?
- Are you experiencing fatigue?
- Do you have a history of travelling to a COVID-affected area?
For more on him, check out facebook.com/bharatkumarhacker
