The COVID-19 infection changed the dynamics of every sector, especially healthcare. The deadly infection's surge in India not only pushed the pharma companies to fast-track manufacturing drugs but also increase the ventilators' capacity in hospitals. Small-scale manufacturers tied up with big companies including automobile and engineering firms, to ramp up the production are now looking at big gains.
The majority of the automobile companies are involved in the process of manufacturing ventilators (directly on indirectly). Hence, the recent government's decision on
exporting ventilators is seen as a positive move.
"Additionally, there has been substantial growth in the domestic manufacturing capacity of ventilators. Compared to January, there are presently more than 20 domestic manufacturers for ventilators," said Ministry officials.
A general ventilator costs anywhere around Rs 5-12 lakh but in the month of May, Mahindra & Mahindra announced that they would come up with a ventilator that would cost Rs 7,500 only. This is still under-production, however, there are many small manufacturers who are tying up with big listed firms like Maruti Suzuki, Bharat Electronics (BEL), and Bharat Forge, to rapidly increase the number of life-saving machines in India.
BEL has tied up with Mysuru-based Skanray to produce ventilators and also received the largest order of about 30,000 machines. Moreover, Maruti Suzuki has tied up with Delhi-based AgVa healthcare and has delivered one-third of their order of 10,000 ventilators.
Furthermore, TVS Motor has dived into making ventilators or key parts of the medical apparatus for less-critical COVID-19 patients, while KPIT Technologies, a mid-sized company, is now engaged in manufacturing electronic devices for automobiles to venture in low-cost ventilators. Marico and BHEL are also a part of this race.
There are more and more companies coming forward given the rise in the number of coronavirus cases in the country.
