An Indian doctor wearing PPE kits writes thee details of a patient before collecting samples for swab test for coronavirus in Guwahati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) in Gauhati, India, Sunday, May 17, 2020. India has extended a nearly two-month-old stringent lockdown by another two weeks with Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai and some other key regions still battling to control the rising curve of coronavirus infections.
In what comes as a boost to both the Atmanirbhar Abhiyan and the Make in India campaign, India has now become the second-largest producer of Personal Protection Equiptment (PPE) kits in the world, only behind China. "Not long ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic began, not a single PPE kit was being produced in India," Prime Minister Narendra Modi had informed this in his speech when he announced the inevitability of the lockdown 4.0.
From zero to second largest in the world, India has come a long way in times when the world needs industry leaders to stand out and lead the people out of a situation of crisis.
In a statement, the Ministry of Textiles said it has been taking several steps to ensure that both quality and quantity of PPE coveralls going up to the desired levels within a very short span of time of two months, "thereby catapulting India into the world's second-largest manufacturer of body coveralls, next only to China".
Ajit Chavan, Secretary, Textiles Committee and Additional Textile Commissioner, Ministry of Textiles, explained how the committee rose up to the occasion to surmount the challenge of non-availability of reputed domestic manufacturers of PPE testing equipment. "We faced the humongous challenges of non-availability of domestic manufacturers of repute and incessant delay/long gestation period to import machine from China as also challenges of ever-increasing prices by the opportunist companies in China due to demand for such equipment the world over. We, therefore, decided to do it indigenously," he said.
