PPE ‘Make in India’ – Production touched a peak of 5 lakh/day in May’20

28 September 2020: A true example of Make in India is the PPE production. From zero manufacturers in March 2020, today there are as many as 1100 indigenous manufacturers of PPE kits, supported by the Government. As such the capacity and production of PPE Coveralls for COVID-19 touched a peak of 5 lakh per day in mid May 2020, as revealed by Union Minister of Textiles, Smriti Irani in Lok Sabha.

She said that the manufacturers supplying PPE Coveralls are from all textiles clusters spread across the country which included Bengaluru, Tirupur, Surat, Ahmedabad, Ludhiana, etc. Apart from supply to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), more than 1 crore PPE Coveralls have been supplied by indigenous manufacturers to State Governments and private hospitals.

Moreover, since the country had sufficient raw materials and production capacity of PPE Coveralls to meet the domestic demand, textile industry sought permission to export surplus PPE suits. After considering demand from the industry, the ban on export was lifted by the Government, vide its Notification dated 25th August 2020 issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), the Minister said.

As on 13th September, 2020, a total of 1.42 crore PPE kits have been supplied to HLL Lifecare Ltd. – the procurement arm of MoHFW for use of health professionals in government hospitals.

In order to streamline supply chain, remove bottlenecks and maintain a steady supply of PPEs in the country, a centralized Emergency Control Room was established in the Ministry working round the clock with the 200 Nodal Officers appointed across the value chain to monitor/ facilitate from supply of raw material to the units, testing and certification, to delivery of final product to its destination during lockdown period. The supply-demand scenario is also closely monitored by the Government during the COVID-19.