Noccarc Robotics and Biodesign Innovation Labs have built affordable ventilators from scratch to meet Indian needs, while meeting global standards
Noccarc Robotics’s V310 ventilator deployed at a remotely located hospital in Bijapur, Karnataka
When the Covid-19 pandemic arrived on Indian shores in 2020, the country was caught off-guard on several fronts. One of them was the acute shortage of ventilators. In April 2020, the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP), which produces independent and multidisciplinary research, estimated India had about 1.9 million hospital beds, 95,000 ICU beds, and 48,000 ventilators.
With Covid-19 still an unknown element across the world, and experts uncertain of ways to tackle it, ventilators emerged as an immediate way of treating critical patients. Expecting a massive surge in demand for ventilators in the coming months, the government of India, in March 2020, called on Indian companies to rapidly scale up manufacturing capacities and fill the supply gap. India Inc rose to the challenge, with established ventilator manufacturers as well as startups ramping up production capacity, inventing entirely new machines, and collaborating with other industry players in unprecedented ways.
“ We would have made the ventilator in 50 days rather than 90, if regulatory requirements were clear.”
Srikant Sastri, co-lead, IIT Kanpur Ventilator Consortium
(This story appears in the 30 July, 2021 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)