Page 17 - Plastics News September 2020

The 'Stimulus' for Manufacturing PPE Kits

Did the onset of Coronavirus pandemic happen to kickstart Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was
the manufacturing thereby providing the much needed added as another testing and certifying agency to help
stimulus.. speed up the manufacturing process.
M R Subramani “When the initiative began, the government had a clear
On 18 March this year, when the Union Textiles Secretary, roadmap. Therefore, at no point of time did we have any
Ravi Capoor, chaired a joint meeting of officials and doubt of meeting the rising demand for PPE kits,” said an
industry representatives to assess the availability of industrial participant of the 18 March meeting on
protective wears for use by health professionals while condition of anonymity. The participant is not authorised
attending to novel coronavirus patients, the country was to speak to the media. In the two months' time since then,
India has developed into a country producing 4.5 lakh PPE
facing a shortage of body coveralls and masks. During the
joint meeting, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare kits a day from zero. It is now a Rs 7,000-crore industry in
(MoHFW) said it would require 7.25 lakh coveralls as part the making.
of the Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits, along “No other sector of the industry has developed so fast and
with 60 lakh N-95 masks and one crore three-ply masks for rapidly like this in our country. An important point is that
its frontline workers to tend to coronavirus patients. the industry got no subsidy or incentive from the
The MoHFW officials told the meeting that the ministry government and it sprung to its feet on its own,” said the
was facing a shortage of PPE kits and supplies were not participant. Invest India, in a write-up, says that this is a
increasing in tune with the demand. The officials, remarkable journey of collaboration between
however, were a little smart to have made a timely import governments at the central and state levels, industries
and workers to revamp existing production lines and
of 2.75 lakh PPE kits in January.
manufacture a completely unknown product, from
Again, the availability or shortage was in relation to scratch.
MoHFW needs. It did not include what each state would
require. The meeting then did not have even the slightest From being a net importer of personal protection
idea of how many Covid-19 cases India would have and how equipment, India has taken first steps in exporting the
the pandemic would spread across the globe. A joint protective gear that has emerged key defence in the fight
secretary of the Textiles Ministry told the meeting that against Covid-19. The Ministry of Health said domestic
even state governments reported difficulties in meeting manufacturers had exported 23 lakh personal protection
their requirement and the few available suppliers were equipment (PPE) kits in July, when the government
quoting 'unreasonable prices'. allowed sale of such medical coverall to foreign entities.
The domestic manufacturers sold the PPEs to five
The meeting then decided to go in for the developing of countries – the US, Britain, UAE, Senegal and Slovenia.
PPE kits locally, from available resources within the
country, besides imports. It also decided that the Several apparel manufacturers tweaked their production
manufacture of PPE kits would be in full swing and the units to stitch PPEs with active support from the Textile
Coimbatore-based South India Textile Research Ministry which relaxed norms for use material without
Association (SITRA) will test if the samples of the kits met compromising on safety.
the specified standards and certify them for use by Today, the Centre and States, together, have a buffer stock
frontline workers. of over 16 lakh PPE kits, while orders for another 2.2 crore
kits have been placed with the industry. Bengaluru,
Karnataka's capital, has become a major hub for PPE
coveralls production in the country, accounting for nearly
50 per cent of the total output. The coveralls are also
being manufactured at approved production units in
Tiruppur, Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu,
Ahmedabad and Vadodara in Gujarat, Phagwara and
Ludhiana in Punjab, Kusumnagar and Bhiwandi in
Maharashtra, Dungarpur in Rajasthan, Kolkata, Delhi,
Noida, Gurugram and few other places.
While the Union government is supplying PPE kits, N95
masks, ventilators etc., to the state governments and
union territories administrations, states are also procuring
The Hindustan Latex Limited (HLL) was made the these items directly. “Between March and August 2020,
centralised handling agency for procurement and getting they have procured 1.4 crore indigenous PPE from their
intents for supply from manufacturers. Later, the Defence own budgetary resources. During the same period, the

September 2020 17 Plastics News