Page 20 - COVID Newsletter 11 June

Office of PSA calls for philanthropic funding for National
Consortium of OXYGEN
Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India calls for private sector companies, donor organizations and individuals to join India’s fight against COVID-19 by providing philanthropic funding to support the National Consortium of OXYGEN (O2 TO INDIA). The consortium is looking forward to providing immediate to short-term relief and working on building the manufacturing ecosystem and healthcare infrastructure for the
long run.
These funds may be used for producing medical oxygen for various health facilities in India, including Army hospitals, Government hospitals and Charity hospitals through an initiative called ‘Project O2’. Medical oxygen is on high priority, so while companies are airlifting few supplies, we should be prepared for the pandemic that is expected to last for the next several years and 3rd and 4th waves are expected in the coming months. This needs immediate
and short term ramp-up of our logistics as well as production capacities. This entails manufacturing raw material currently being imported from China and other places; some are delayed, and costs are unaffordable. There is a need to support the fast-paced evaluation of quality manufacturers, scale up their capacity, address logistics challenges, enable supplies to extended/make-shift hospitals, and strengthen R&D and innovation for future pandemics.
To execute this project, Office of the PSA is facilitating at the national level supply of critical raw materials such as zeolites, setting up small oxygen plants, manufacturing compressors and final products, quality oxygen cylinders, concentrators and ventilators. The manufacturing and supply consortium includes Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Electronic Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), Skanray Technologies, IIT Kanpur, C-CAMP Bengaluru, IIT Delhi, Venture Center Pune, IIT Bombay, IIT Hyderabad, IISER Bhopal and 40+ MSMEs.
A committee of key experts has been evaluating from a pool of Indian manufacturers, start- ups and MSMEs (in partnership with FICCI, MESA, etc.) producing medical oxygen and other critical equipment such as oxygen concentrators, ventilators and oxygen cylinders. A robust evaluation committee with both subject matter experts from IITs and manufacturing companies has been set up and it will be continuously evaluating the oxygen manufacturing companies on an on-going basis and adding to the consortium. Quality cannot be compromised, and hence this system has been put in place.
Simultaneously, a TCS logistics and inventory management portal has been provided pro bono to the office of the PSA for managing quality covid relief will be used.
Anyone could support the initiative by funding:
1) Research on variants and calibration of vaccines based on variants identified and
2) Start-ups, BEL, ECIL, MSMEs, Start-ups setting up and manufacturing oxygen
equipment, extension hospitals by placing advance orders directly.
Office of the PSA aims to facilitate providing proposals approved by an expert committee and/or one can also fund the PSUs directly as they have 45 MSMEs under their supply chain.
Please write back for any clarification:
Project Lead: Mr Vibhor Bansal, Vibhor.bansal@investindia.org.in
Project Lead CSR/Philanthropy: Mr Bhanu Prabhakar, bhanu.prabhakar@investindia.org.in
VOL. IV ISSUE 4
VIGYAN PRASAR 16
NATION’S S&T EFFORTS AGAINST COVID-19