From 47,000 per year to 2 lakh a day, India’s PPE kit production skyrockets

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 10

There has been a massive spike in the production of personal protection equipment (PPE) in the country following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. From just 47,000 items being produced annually, the output has gone up to about two lakh per day.

Stating this on Sunday, Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary, Defence Research and Development Organisation and Chairman, DRDO, said coronavirus has also provided a lot of opportunity for research and development and industrial production, but cautioned that delays in development is of no use.

He was addressing scientists and staff members at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mohali, via video conferencing on the occasion of the centre’s 32nd foundation day. Directors and senior scientists from various laboratories of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and other institutions also participated in the conference.

He also spoke about medical ventilators produced by the industry with assistance by DRDO, which though low cost ranging from Rs 1.5 to 4 lakh were world class products and also have export potential.

Dr Reddy said C-DAC, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, will be considered as an “extended arm” of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for undertaking applied research. He said that in today’s environment different organisations cannot function in silos and there were many areas in which both the establishments would work together.

Lauding the role of the Mohali centre in research and development in the electronics and information technology fields, he said artificial intelligence tools developed by it would be required in almost all fields.

Dr PK Khosla, Director C-DAC, Mohali, gave an overview of the work done in the organisation’s four verticals – healthcare technology, cyber security, e-governance and education and training. He also spoke about four new areas that C-DAC is now focusing upon. These include artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual, robotics and quantum computing. He said that several new projects have been initiated in these domains.

C-DAC is a research and development organisation of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology engaged in strengthening national technological capabilities in the context of global developments and responding to change in the market needs. It has 11 centres across the country, including Mohali.

Director General C-DAC, Dr Hemant Darbari, spoke about-eSanjeevniOPD, a recently launched national level telemedicine project rolled out by C-DAC Mohali, to bring medicare to people’s doorsteps in these times of lockdown. It has been extended to 15 states within three weeks and provides access to over a thousand doctors.