As India Races Against Time To Make Ventilators, Help Comes From Maruti, Mahindra And Railways

In the coming days, the medical infrastructure in India will be put to its toughest test - once the number of Covid-19 patients spirals out of control.

Across the world, in China, Iran, Italy, Spain, the US, UK, and many more countries there was an acute shortage of hospital beds, isolation facilities and ventilators which are crucial for patients who are critically ill.

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As per data, India has 7,13,986 total government hospital beds available which is 0.55 beds per 1000 population. There are no official figures on the number of ventilators available in the public sector.

But with the time running out, the race is on to get the maximum number of ventilators ready.

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One company that has made considerable progress in this front is Mahindra. Just days after chairman Anand Mahindra promised that his company will be making ventilators the said teams have started delivering on the promise and already has a prototype ready.

A recent tweet by the chairman of Mahindra Group shows teams at the company's Igatpuri and Kandivali factories coming up with the first ventilator prototype in this endeavour. For this, the teams claim to have researched on the Internet for hours on a stretch on the working of ventilators, before coming up with a way to simplify the production process.

The tweet by Anand Mahindra shows a video of the team that was behind the project. The video shows the team explaining their findings and their efforts towards reciprocating the same in making the prototype. Going forward, the team will work on 3 more prototypes based on feedback from experts on the present one. The team estimates a time period of another 2 to 3 days for the same.

Mahindra's engineering team is also working with two big Public sector Undertakings and a ventilator manufacturer to simplify the design of the ventilators as well as scale up the production capacity of the company for the same.

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Another auto manufacturer, Maruti is also currently evaluating the current situation as well as the possibility of manufacturing the ventilators. The announcement was made soon after the government had reached out to all prominent auto manufacturers to help out in making ventilators.

Bajaj Group Head, Rahul Bajaj also said that they will look into options and would help in any way possible.

In the meantime, AgVa Healthcare, a Noida-based startup, which has built a cost-effective portable ventilator is also stepping up their production.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has also joined the race and is working with the private sector to mass-produce ventilators, provide high-grade protective material for use by researchers and healthcare professionals, and will provide vital enzymes that are needed to make test kits for the virus.

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Top DRDO scientist AK Singh, who leads the Life Sciences Directorate of DRDO, told ET that scientists have been working around the clock to step in for assistance and labs as well as production units are being utilised to produce gear needed for healthcare.

The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) of the Indian Railways in Chennai is also exploring the possibility of manufacturing ventilators. This has so far remained unsuccessful, but the engineers are hopeful to turn it around.