Indian Institutes such as DBT, National Institute of Virology and ICMR are actively working on finding vaccine to Covid-19, while IIT Incubators have been asked to focus research on development of portable ventilators.
Ventilators will be useful for treating Covid-19 patients who would need air supply. The breathing ability of a patient becomes weak if he/she is affected by the virus. Ventilators could directly supply oxygen and remove CO2 from the respiratory system.
Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt of India said on Friday that 7000 technology-based proposals from Private companies and Individuals to fight Covid-19 have been recieved and Govt is looking into them.
She said that the Government is concentrated in increasing the production/manufacturing capacity of startups and incubators that have made low-cost Covid-19 testing kits and ventilators.
DBT is also aiding private companies to get local components to manufacture ventilators in the country, as importing components from other nations is not possible due to the lockdown, said Renu Swarup.
On the other hand, we have 2 Mahindra&Mahindra teams (Kandivali and Igatpuri) who are working on a prototype of an incredibly cost-effective Automated Bag-valve Mask Ventilator.
The company is expecting to get the approval for this prototype in this week and bring it to the market for a very low price of Rs.7500, reporter YourStory.
Mahindra is also working with Public Sector Units along with an existing manufacturer to assist in simply the design and increase the production of high-spec ventilators.