Page 62 - Dental Practice Vol 17 No.5_

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Dental entrepreneur leads massive covid relief efforts for India

PPE being loaded onto the FedEx charter 777 in Memphis

Srinivas Katta has been a very familiar name
within the Indian dental circles. Formerly
associated with NovaBone Products, he
founded Novabone India in 2012 and has
over 25 years experience in the dental indus-
try. His new entity Crest Biologics will deliver
the best in medical and dental products and
services to India. Based out of San Francisco,
Srinivas through his extensive network in the
US has been in the forefront of covid relief
efforts in India. He has effectively managed
fund raising, procurement of essential items
and shipping to India. Further his team in
Bangalore has managed local logistics and
delivery.
He recently coordinated PPE donation
worth a whopping 3.8 Million USD. This PPE worth USD 3.8 million bound for India
included procurement through donations of
65 Kilo Tons of PPE (masks, gowns, coveralls,
goggles, face shields) through his contacts at
Dignity Health- one of the largest hospital
systems in the US.
FedEx USA moved these PPE in 9 large
Semi Trucks to their Memphis Head quarters
and airlifted these to Mumbai via a special
Charter Flight - a full 777 freighter. The total
number of items donated: 630,000.
It took Srinivas more than a month to pull
off this massive project. In the process he col- Several hundred Oxygen concentrators were Working closely with MP Tejasvi Surya who is head-
laborated with various organisations includ- airlifted from Shanghai to Bangalore ing the Covid Task Force in Bangalore
ing Tata Memorial who continue to lead dis- airlifted from Shanghai to Bangalore. These that my global industry connections are deliv-
tribution efforts in India, Dignity Health for concentrators were then distributed to non ering on my behalf.”
their generous donation, FedEx Global - for profit organizations, Covid centers and This publication is proud of Srinivas Katta
their special 777 Charter Flight and Air India Government Hospitals across the country. and his team for the terrific job they are
for local transportation. Srinivas and his team have been working doing coordinating relief efforts for those
Earlier he had coordinated the procure- closely with Minister of Parliament Tejasvi affected in India.We hope this serves as a
ment and dispatch of Oxygen Concentrators Surya in their efforts to reach out to those in motivation to all others to contribute to soci-
to India. VSF Foundation was instrumental in need. In Srinivas's words “Saving lives is not a ety and help whoever they can in whatever
the fund raise for this project and these were choice, its a mission and I am making sure way they can.

62 Dental Practice // May-June 2021 // Vol 17 No 5