K. VijayRaghavan Brilliantly written … timely –Gopal Vittal
An inspiring story –Pramath Raj Sinha
A raging pandemic, a dearth of life-saving equipment, and ninety days to manufacture a world-class ventilator.
On 24 March 2020, a nationwide lockdown was imposed in India in the face of a formidable adversary, the Covid-19 pandemic. With the number of cases increasing exponentially, hospitals were faced with a dangerous shortage of life-saving equipment and personnel.
In response to the imminent crisis, Amitabha Bandyopadhyay and Srikant Sastri formed the IIT Kanpur Ventilator Consortium as a task force to assist a young startup, Nocca Robotics, in building affordable high-quality ventilators for Indias cash-strapped hospitals. Under the mentorship of reputed industry leaders, the task force and the Nocca team worked tirelessly against unprecedented odds – trammelled by a ban on imports and telecommuting through Zoom and Whatsapp in the face of stringent lockdown restrictions – to manufacture the Noccarc V310 in record time. This is the incredible story of its conception, creation and success, in the words of the task force co-leaders themselves.
Inspiring and riveting,The Ventilator Projectalso offers an unmatched blueprint for business in the post-Covid era through first-hand lessons gleaned during the task forces phenomenal ninety-day run. It proves that India, with its deep recesses of talent and ingenuity, has the potential to be a world leader in both business and social impact. >The Ventilator ProjectS Srikant SastriMacmillan9789389104660