NEW DELHI, Mar 7:
A new book released on Sunday tells the riveting story of how 20 Indian minds came together to create a world-class ICU ventilator in a ‘record’ 90 days amid a raging pandemic and nationwide lockdown.
The book, “The Ventilator Project: How the IIT Kanpur Consortium Built a World-class Product during India’s Covid-19 Lockdown”, is written by Srikant Sastri and Amitabha Bandyopadhyay. Published by Pan Macmillan India, it is a Covid-era story of “innovation, hope, ingenuity and triumph” against all odds.
India on March 24 last year had imposed a nationwide lockdown to contain the highly contagious virus. But with the number of cases increasing exponentially, hospitals were staring at a shortage of life-saving equipment and personnel.
Taking up the challenge, Bandyopadhyay and Sastri on March 29 formed the ‘IIT Kanpur Ventilator Consortium’ as a task force to assist a young startup, ‘Nocca Robotics’, in building not only “affordable” but “world-class ventilators” for hospitals. After working tirelessly against unprecedented odds, the team was successful in bringing out the first batch of high-quality ventilators, Noccarc V310, in June.
“We hope this true story that reveals how the limitations of time, resources and infrastructure can be catapults to success, inspires people to think about innovation and change. This is a story relevant to a new future with constant and accelerated changes, and new ways of working. At its heart, it’s very much a story based in India and also one that has traversed the world,” write the authors in the book. (PTI)
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