With COVID-19 pandemic causing a shortage of medical equipment in India, several automakers have proactively come forward to tackle this issue. Auto giants including Tata Motors, Maruti, and Mahindra & Mahindra have reportedly joined forces with medical equipment manufactures to boost the production of ventilators in the nation.

Sources cite that medical equipment manufacturers in India have made plans to roll out around 50,000 ventilators by next month to cope up with increasing demand for life-saving devices over this spreading pandemic.

A research report by Brookings estimates that India has a maximum, 57,000 ventilators, both in private and government hospitals, and would need an estimated 1.1 lakh to 2.2 lakh ventilators by next month when the COVID-19 outbreak may reach its peak.

According to sources, SkanRay Technologies, one of the leading ventilator manufacturers, has joined forces with BHEL, BEL, & Mahindra to accelerate ventilator production, from standard 2000 per month to currently 5000 ventilators per month, and further 30,000 ventilators per month by May.

Similarly, AgVa Healthcare has associated with Maruti to ramp up production from 400 ventilators per month to 4000 ventilators per month in April, to 10,000 pieces per month by May. Other companies are also gearing up to tackle growing need for medical equipment.

As most of the medical equipment manufacturer do not have the financial capability to boost ventilators production significantly, several auto giants are expected to contribute by offering financial support as well as machinery are required make electrical components of automobiles.

Rajiv Nath, Forum Coordinator, AiMeD (Association of Indian Manufacturers of Medical Devices), has requested the government to reduce dependency on state-run HLL Healthcare to do all the procurement and instead purchase the ventilators using the GeM (Government e-Marketplace) portal.

As per Nath, the industry and the government planned to meet the increasing demand for ventilators by developing 2-3 different models. They are working on a low-cost respiratory model, high-end ICU model, and multi-patient model of ventilators.

 Source Credit - https://www.deccanherald.com/business/business-news/covid-19-automakers-medical-device-makers-join-hands-to-produce-ventilators-819878.html