SIIC, IIT Kanpur to set up 10 oxygen plants this month

Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC), IIT Kanpur, will set up 10 oxygen plants this month to address the oxygen crisis in India and to strengthen the Indian healthcare infrastructure.

A SIIC incubatee, AIPL, has developed the design for the oxygen plant and is a manufacturing partner as well. SIIC’s efforts under Mission Bharat O2 will support healthcare facilities to flatten the curve of cases and provide critical care, an official said.

SIIC will work with four other partner manufacturers: Avadh Rail Infra Ltd (Tamil Nadu), Pullman Engineering Pvt Ltd (West Bengal), Energy Pack Boilers Pvt Ltd (Gujarat), and International Cylinders Pvt Ltd (Himachal Pradesh).

Each manufacturer has been selected from a different part of the country to ensure widespread availability of the finished product, who will set up 10 plants by the end of June 2021, and 50 over the coming months. SIIC’s strong ties with local hospitals and administration will pivot their combined efforts to support the public health system.

The initiative, led by Prof Amitabha Bandyopadhyay, professor in-charge, innovation and Incubation, IIT Kanpur; Srikant Sastri, director, FIRST-IITK and chairman, I3G Advisory Network, and Rahul Patel, head of strategic initiatives, SIIC, IIT Kanpur, will focus on the production of oxygen plants of 250 LPM and 500 LPM capacities.

With Mission Bharat O2, SIIC IIT Kanpur has taken a step forward to make the Indian healthcare manufacturing ecosystem self-sustaining by reducing dependence on imports.

Commenting on the urgency of the situation, Bandyopadhyay said, “During the first wave of Covid-19, SIIC and its companies delivered the Swasa N-95 masks and the Noccarc V310 ICU ventilator. Both products, developed locally, were a testament to Indian manufacturers’ capability to deliver in times of urgency. With Mission Bharat O2, we look further to equipping healthcare systems with world-class medical infrastructure.”

SIIC, IIT Kanpur launched the Mission Bharat oxygen in May 2021 with an overarching objective of promoting indigenous manufacturing at par with global standards. Mission Bharat O2 is a step towards the larger vision of SIIC to nurture a self-sustainable healthcare system in India.

Besides selected manufacturers, SIIC is keen to partner with interested organisations to execute the project. “The SIIC team has acted swiftly in the past, during the first wave of Covid-19, to deliver an invasive ICU ventilator in just 90 days with Noccarc Robotics,” an official said.

Srikant Sastri commented, “We believe that Mission Bharat O2 will chart the course for making local manufacturing the new normal. SIIC, IIT Kanpur aims to turn India into a self-sustainable powerhouse of quality healthcare equipment developed within her borders. Mission Bharat O2 is a crucial step towards that vision.”