Context: Amid rising coronavirus COVID-19 cases in India, the central government is hopeful that 400 to 500 million doses of the vaccine will be available in the country in 2021.

• The eVIN network, which can track the latest vaccine stock position; the temperature at storage facility; geo-tag health centres; and maintain facility-level dashboard, is being repurposed for the delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine.

About eVIN 

• It is an indigenously developed technology system in India that digitizes vaccine stocks and monitors the temperature of the cold chain through a smartphone application.
• eVIN network can track the latest vaccine stock position; the temperature at a storage facility; geo-tag health centres; and maintain a facility-level dashboard.
• It is being implemented under the National Health Mission (NHM) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Components of eVIN

• eVIN combines state-of-the-art technology, a strong IT infrastructure and trained human resource to enable real-time monitoring of stock and storage temperature of the vaccines kept in multiple locations across the country.
• At present, 23,507 cold chain points across 585 districts of 22 States and 2 UTs routinely use the eVIN technology for efficient vaccine logistics management.

Benefits of eVIN

• It has helped create a big data architecture that generates actionable analytics encouraging data-driven decision-making and consumption-based planning.
• It helps in maintaining optimum stocks of vaccines leading to cost savings. Vaccine availability at all times has increased to 99% in most health centres in India.
• While instances of stock-outs have reduced by 80%, the time taken to replenish stocks has also decreased by more than half, on an average.
• This has ensured that every child who reaches the immunization session site is immunized, and not turned back due to unavailability of vaccines.