All those firms who have been given the order to manufacture the ventilators under PM-Cares Fund have shown displeasure towards the quality of components being supplied. Out of 50,000 ‘Made in India’ ventilators, only 6% could bag them under PM-Cares Fund.
The Indian companies involved in manufacturing the ventilators include the Bharat Electronics Limited, the AgVa Healthcare, and the AMTZ Basic among others.
The problem was discussed among senior officials on the video conference. The e-conference was attended by – NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, DPIIT Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra, and DRDO Chairman Dr. Satheesh Reddy and they unanimously acknowledged this challenge in India at a government-industry interaction, which also attended by Principal Scientific Advisor D Vijyaraghavan, on June 11, according to sources. CEO Kant had chaired the conference.
During the conference among the top officials, those points were highlighted which bottlenecked the domestic manufacturing of ventilators. They all subscribed that the delay in the delivery of ventilators was due to the non-availability of critical components.
However, Prime Minister’s office issued a statement on Tuesday that out of total 50,000
‘Made in India’ ventilators under PM-Cares Fund, 2,923 have been manufactured so far, “out of which 1,340 ventilators have already been delivered to the states/UTs.” The recipients of ventilators are – Maharashtra (275), Delhi (275), Gujarat (175), Bihar (100), Karnataka (90), and Rajasthan (75). 14,000 ventilators are expected to be provided by the end of June 2020.
DPIIT Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra told the participants during the e-conference – “After a demand assessment, the government had placed orders for 60,000 ventilators with four Indian ventilator manufacturers. However, the delivery of these orders was getting delayed due to the non-availability of critical components on which India is import-dependent.”
Some other problems related to the manufacturing of ventilators were also highlighted by DPIIT officials. They said – Indian ventilator manufacturers are facing problems in procuring specific components such as AC/DC converter, miniature general-purpose filter, pressure pumps, sensors, flow sensors, and substance valves.
According to the minutes of the e-conference – Amitabh Kant said that several parts are not manufactured in India and being imported, causing a severe delay in the production and supply of ventilators.
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