As the country is in the middle of the COVID-19 health emergency, automobile manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India Limited has decided to produce ventilators, masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) to support India’s fight against the Wuhan Coronavirus. According to the reports, Maruti Suzuki has made an arrangement with AgVa Healthcare, who is an existing approved manufacturer of ventilators, to manufacture 10,000 ventilators per month.
This comes after the government reached out to Maruti Suzuki India asking the company to make ventilators. The company has now initiated the process and tied up with AgVa Healthcare and roped in its joint venture partners for the same.
AgVa Healthcare will be responsible for the technology, performance and other matters related to all the ventilators produced and sold by them while Maruti Suzuki India Limited will use its suppliers to produce the required volume of components and use its experience and knowledge to upgrade systems for the production and quality control of higher volumes.
The company will also help in arranging the finance and obtaining all permissions and approvals required to enable higher production.
In addition to that, Krishna Maruti Limited, a joint venture of MSIL, will also manufacture three-ply masks for supply to the Central and Haryana governments for free. For manufacturing of protective clothes, Bharat Seats Limited, a joint venture of MSIL with the Relan family, will be producing protective clothing for health workers as soon as all approvals are in place.
All these facilities will be fully quarantined with no access to outsiders.
Reportedly, the production will start as soon as permissions are in place and full precautions will be taken to manufacture these products.
Ever since the Chinese coronavirus outbreak occurred in the country, India Inc. has risen to the occasion to extend assistance to the government in their fight against the COVID-19. Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, Anand Mahindra, the chairman of Mahindra Group and Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal have pledged their support amidst the unprecedented crisis that has triggered widespread lockdowns across many parts of the country.
Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance has announced a slew of measures taken by the conglomerate to shore up India’s battle against the COVID-19. Reliance has decided to step up production of 1 lakh masks per day, free fuel to emergency vehicles carrying COVID-19 patients and free meals to the needy ones in several cities to support the livelihood of those affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
Anand Mahindra, the chairman of the Mahindra Group, had cautioned that the country might already be in stage 3 of the transmission and urged the government to announce the continuation of lockdown for a few more weeks to blunt the spread of the virus. He also added that he is exploring ways to use his organisation’s manufacturing facilities to make ventilators. Mahindra has also offered resorts under Mahindra Holidays as temporary care facilities for the patients.
Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal has pledged an amount of Rs 100 crores to fight the pandemic of coronavirus that has hit the nation.
