A team at the Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, has launched 'Mission Bharat O2' challenge to develop indigenous solutions for solving India's oxygen crisis amid the deadly second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The team aims to build a mechanism to support innovative minds of India to set up more than 20,000 oxygen generation units in the next 6-8 weeks, an official statement said.
SIIC aims to work with a set of manufacturers in different regions of India with a target production capacity of 100 units per day with the possibility of scaling up, it added.
Last year, SIIC had supported its incubated companies to develop indigenous products including the Swasa N-95 mask and the Noccarc V310 ventilator.
"When the first wave of COVID-19 hit India, SIIC-incubated companies stepped up to deliver world-class healthcare products. The products, developed locally, are a testament of India's capability to innovate at par with global standards," Professor Abhay Karandikar, Director at IIT Kanpur, said.
As India reels under the impact of the second wave, IIT Kanpur and SIIC have decided to support more indigenous innovators, this time to address the oxygen crisis in the country, Prof Karandikar added.
In a social media post, Prof Karandikar asked startups and entrepreneurs from across the country to participate in the challange.
.@IITKanpur's @IncubatorIITK has stepped up to solve India's #oxygencrisis with Mission Bharat O2, to scale up the production of oxygen cylinders & plants.
— Abhay Karandikar (@karandi65) May 4, 2021
I urge #MSME & #startup entrepreneurs from all over India to visit https://t.co/8ELHxSZbju & participate in the hour of need pic.twitter.com/wSFJWf9Tib
