Wayanad landslide: Relief efforts get tech boost

Rajith Ramachandran, co-founder of Faircode Infotech, and his team have volunteered their services to create a robust inventory management system at the relief material collection centre set up at St Joseph's Higher Secondary School.

The innovative solution has greatly eased the task of revenue officials, who were struggling to keep track of the pouring in relief materials. With the new system in place, officials can now ensure timely and efficient distribution of aid to the affected families.

"We contacted the deputy Collector, Wayanad, on July 31 and she happily welcomed us. Our ERP software has made life easier for us," Rajith told PTI. Rajith's team trained 10 revenue department officials, and they learnt the nuances of the job quicker.

"We have only taken the inventory vertical of the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software. Generally, it takes a few days for new people to understand and work on this. But the officials here are super smart, and they grabbed it instantly," Rajith said.

The idea of the introduction of this software is to bring transparency to the entire relief material collection and distribution. "Now the public can check the details on our website and see what is in stock and what more is needed," Rajith said.

Rajith's team of five members, along with 10 members from the revenue department, are entering data regarding each item received at the centre and also keying in details about the materials sent to each camp and community kitchen.

"There is an issue with people donating materials that we cannot stock and supply, like bread," said Nakul R, another team member of Rajith. "So, we request that the public, who want to lend a helping hand, check our website and understand what materials are running low in stock and donate those." The work done here at the centre is like the stock inventory management of a hypermarket, without the specifics like brand, pricing and variety.

"The advantage of this system is that the camp managers can check our inventory and place orders as per their need. So no item goes waste or is ordered incorrectly," Rajith said. Rajith, 39, hailing from Palakkad, and running his company from Kochi, is passionate about helping people in distress and the administration to ease their relief works. "We have done this during COVID-19 pandemic and also during the floods in 2018. We had developed a similar product for Kerala Beverages Corporation and for KSEB," Rajith said.

With the help of Rajith and his team, the district administration could effectively set aside materials that were not needed for the relief efforts and ensure that only useful items were distributed.