In a big announcement, founder and CEO of digital payments company Paytm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma has tweeted that Paytm will provide five crore rupees to researchers of IISC for developing indigenous ventilators for coronavirus patients.
Vijay Shekhar in his tweet said that “We need more Indian innovators to start building such indigenous solutions for potential ventilators shortage and other COVID cures. @Paytm commits ₹5 crore for such teams working on COVID related medical solutions.”
This announcement was in response to a tweet of Professor Gaurav Banerjee of IISC Bangalore where he tried to reach out to biomedical engineers to help his team in developing ventilators by using Indian ingredients.
Professor Banerjee mentioned that they are being ready in case it becomes worse. This step can prove to be a boon when major suppliers in the country have said that they have acute shortage of ventilators.
Banerjee in his tweet has said “I am reaching out to my network to get in touch with a biomedical engineer with Clinical ventilator experience who handles mechanical ventilators on a daily basis. We are a small team of Aerospace and electrical engineers mostly from IISc trying to put together a prototype ventilator using Indian ingredients on an emergency basis. The intent is to be ready if the COVID-19 situation becomes worse.”
Vijay Shekhar Sharma in his earlier announcement said that he will not draw his salary for next two months to help those employees infected by the pandemic. His decision was inspired by Marriott international President and CEO of Arne Sorenson.