The second most important thing in demand across the globe right now after a vaccine for COVID-19 is Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) including masks, especially for the frontline workers including doctors and nurses.?
But it is in short supply around the world and some leaders have shown that they will do whatever it takes to get their hands on them.Like the rest of the world, India too wants PPEs, for the lack of which doctors and nurses have been putting themselves at risk while attending COVID-19 patients.?
One of the reasons for this is the world's over-dependence?on China to manufacture quite literally everything. But the COVID-19 lockdown in China has shown to the world that depending on one country for everything is a huge mistake.?
India too is still largely dependant on China for PPEs and that turned out to be a costly mistake after some 50,000 out of the 1,70,000 PPE kits that arrived from China on April 5, failed quality tests.?
The kits were tested at the Defence Research & Development Organisation laboratory in Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior.?
But the irony is that India is still importing PPEs when it could have been the world leader in the industry.That is because India is home to one of the largest textile manufacturing industries in the world and most of them are now shut or have scaled-down production due to the lack of international orders and the ongoing lockdown.?
The Indian textile industry has around 4.5 crore workers and contributed seven per cent of the industry output of India in 2018-19. It contributed two per cent to the GDP of India and employs more than 45 million people in 2018-19. The sector contributed 15 per cent to the export earnings of India in 2018-19.?
But there is an opportunity for the industry during the pandemic if they can modify their production lines to manufacture PPEs.?
With the lockdown showing no signs of easing and no new international orders coming, some have already switched to manufacturing PPEs.In Tirupur, one of the biggest textile manufacturing hubs, around 200 units have already started making PPEs.?
Last week the Haryana-based World University of Design had said it along with IIT Delhi, AIIMS and a few textile mills in Chennai have developed indigenous PPEs for healthcare workers in the fight against coronavirus infection.?
The prototypes of PPE kits are currently undergoing the second round of testing in a Chennai hospital and are expected to go into production within this week, World University of Design Vice-Chancellor Sanjay Gupta said in a statement.IIT Delhi, AIIMS, World University of Design and Chennai-based textile mills have jointly developed the kit, he said.?
"The design and production of these kits is open source, therefore any small or medium scale factory interested can take the design from us and start manufacturing them."The key feature of this design is the ease of doffing, where the garment can be taken off by the person without touching the infected outer surface. The prototypes for these kits have been created following the required protocol," Gupta said.?
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The textile industry in Punjab has also stepped up the production of PPEs especially hazmat (hazardous materials) suits, which are not only of high quality, but will be less costly as compared to the imported ones.The Union government has placed an order for 15 lakh pieces of hazmat suits and PPE worth Rs 150 crore so far, with five textile manufacturers of Punjab, including JCT Phagwara and four textile and hosiery industry in Ludhiana.Samples of PPE fabric manufactured by another two firms in Ludhiana have been approved by the authorised laboratory.?
In the time of crisis, the textile manufacturers backed by Punjab Government came up with samples of hazmat suits just in a span of seven to ten days.The government made arrangements to get these samples airlifted and tested at a lab in Coimbatore where these passed the mandatory tests, including the crucial blood penetration test which ensures that there is no penetration of blood or other liquids into this suit.?
Earlier this month the Indian textiles ministry had announced a regulatory framework for PPE production. The new norms require a unique certification code, called UCC-Covid19, and a tamper-proof sticker in indelible ink specifying details of the manufacturer.?
The ministry said the code would apply to both PPE garments and fabric that pass laboratory tests as stipulated by the South India Textile Research Association (SITRA) and the Defence Research & Development Establishment (DRDE).The code will record the type of garment, its test procedure and also the date of the test. The certification will be valid for a fixed time frame and both SITRA and DRDE will preserve the sample sent by the manufacturer.
In case of coveralls, a manufacturer needs to print in indelible ink or in tamper-proof sticker details like the name of the maker, code, test standard, batch number and order details, the notification said.The directive doesn't concern masks, as these are certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards.?
India is currently equipped with a capacity of producing 10,000 PPE units per day; however, this may increase to 300,000 units.? ? ? ??