Top US corporates sending aid; ventilators reach India

Top US corporates have come together to supply much needed ventilators and oxygen concentrators to India. The first batch landed on Wednesday and supplies are expected to come in consistently over the next month. Some of the biggest industry names, including Accenture, Amazon, Apple, Deloitte, Mastercard, Walmart, IBM and Lockheed Martin have joined hands to bring in equipment.

Led by the US Chambers of Commerce, the initiative will bring in at least 1,000 ventilators for ICU beds across India and will ship in over 25,000 concentrators that can be used to set up mobile healthcare units, specially in rural areas where access is limited.

“The global taskforce for pandemic response was created to meet the urgent needs of the Indian Covid-19 crisis, in a structured manner to ensure that private sector resources and capabilities are leveraged for greatest impact. The ventilator initiative, where corporate contributions by 15 companies were matched with the production, end-to-end delivery, and installation capabilities of our partner, Medtronic will bring 1,000 ventilators to hospital ICUs across India,” US India Business Council president Nisha Biswal told ET.


While some of the ventilators have arrived, the full consignment will be in place within the first week of June, with the timeline for concentrators set to arrive by the end of this month. The US chambers will work with the Indian government to ensure the resources are deployed to the most critical areas.

“The global task force will partner with governments to ensure that the capabilities of the private sector can be more effectively deployed to help manage and mitigate the Covid-19 crisis in India and elsewhere as needed,” Biswal said.

The global task force is currently concentrating on India but could be used for other affected nations as well in the future, in a public-private partnership with the US government. The steering committee includes CEOs from the top US corporates including Tim Cook of Apple. It is working in close collaboration with the US and Indian government officials to share information and coordinate efforts. This includes regular briefings with the Modi and Biden Administrations, US Congress, US State Department and the US Agency for International Development, the US chambers said.