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The Oxygen Crisis:
We have 3.6 million active COVID cases as of beginning of May 2021 and 10-15% of them require mild to moderate oxygen support, i.e, 3-4 Lac people need oxygen support.
We have 3.6 million active COVID cases as of beginning of May 2021 and 10-15% of them require mild to moderate oxygen support, i.e, 3-4 Lac people need oxygen support.
Empowering communities and making them self-reliant for Oxygen supply is the need of the hour.
We are seeing local communities struggling with lack of timely access to oxygen beds at hospitals, fractured provisioning policies controlled by local authorities, poor and illegitimate practices such as gatekeeping, black-marketeering and price-gouging on the field.
State and Industrial Oxygen supply has been mobilized, however it only addresses Oxygen shortage at hospitals. With the second wave of Covid-19 we are seeing a spike in demand for Oxygen therapy to prevent moderate cases from escalating, and also to buy much needed time for collapsing patients. Evidence from the field suggests that unavailability of Oxygen beds is a major reason for avoidable casualties and escalation of sickness. Providing Oxygen is a single independent criterion which can improve patient outcomes.
Why Oxygen Concentrators?
OCs are the simplest, decentralized solution for oxygen
- Plug-and-play, on-demand access to medical grade Oxygen. Only requires electricity to operate.
- OCs are decentralized, don’t require refilling (reducing supply chain issues)
- Reduces burden on already stressed healthcare and ICU infrastructure
- Reduces reliance on central supply for access
- Augment oxygen capacity at community level in a manner complementary to Oxygen cylinders
- Frees up supply in hospitals for attention to severe Covid-19 cases requiring more than Oxygen therapy
Why make them in India?
While 10,000+ OCs are being imported from other countries, the requirement is in Lacs and there is a need for local manufacturing to step in. More options for locally manufactured models helps consumers defeat price gouging and inconsistent quality. Locally manufactured models are further designed with a high awareness of Indian geographical conditions, supply chains and medical caregiver contexts.
While 10,000+ OCs are being imported from other countries, the requirement is in Lacs and there is a need for local manufacturing to step in. More options for locally manufactured models helps consumers defeat price gouging and inconsistent quality. Locally manufactured models are further designed with a high awareness of Indian geographical conditions, supply chains and medical caregiver contexts.
Our Plan:
Saral Designs, with support from a group of IIT Bombay Engineers are developing a user friendly, serviceable and portable oxygen concentrator (10LPM, >90% oxygen concentration) for home and community based use.
We are raising INR 10,00,000 for developing a prototype. The funds will be utilized for:
1. Securing inventory
2. Design iterations to achieve a small form factor, cost optimization and add smart monitoring of gas supply
3. Set-up assembly line and QA at-par with international standards
4. Obtain certifications for medical compliance
5. Outreach and Demand Mapping
2. Design iterations to achieve a small form factor, cost optimization and add smart monitoring of gas supply
3. Set-up assembly line and QA at-par with international standards
4. Obtain certifications for medical compliance
5. Outreach and Demand Mapping
6. Bridge funding for Production scale-up
Timelines:
We plan to make the prototype by mid May and start production by mid June. Weekly progress updates shall be provided to all campaign supporters.
The Team:
Saral Designs' team is 35 members team of young, passionate individuals from diverse backgrounds such as Mechanical, Electrical and Materials Science Engineering to public health, sociology to finance, operations and marketing. The team has strength in product development at rapid speeds, trained production staff, strong operations, procurement, logistics and service team along with adequate space in Navi Mumbai to scale up manufacturing of oxygen concentrators.
We have designed and developed several industrial grade machines for producing sanitary pads and 3ply surgical masks serving frontline workers and rural populations.
Saral Designs' team is 35 members team of young, passionate individuals from diverse backgrounds such as Mechanical, Electrical and Materials Science Engineering to public health, sociology to finance, operations and marketing. The team has strength in product development at rapid speeds, trained production staff, strong operations, procurement, logistics and service team along with adequate space in Navi Mumbai to scale up manufacturing of oxygen concentrators.
We have designed and developed several industrial grade machines for producing sanitary pads and 3ply surgical masks serving frontline workers and rural populations.
1. Kartik Mehta - CTO, Saral Designs
9+ years of special purpose machine design experience | 4 Patents
Ex- General Motors | IIT Madras Engineering Design (B.Tech + M.Tech)
2. Suhani Mohan - CEO, Saral Designs
7+ years of experience in health & hygiene and development sector
Acumen Fellow | Forbes Trailblazer 2018 |
Ex-investment banker | IIT Bombay Metallurgy & Materials Science (B.Tech)
3. Siddharth Chinoy - Supporting OC development Probono
Ex-BMGF and USAID grantee, SLP Fellow
9 years of automation, hardware design experience
Ex-Sony Japan, Ex-Quidich, Ex-Embryyo | IIT Bombay (Computer Science, B.Tech,
M.Tech)
4.Abhinav Agarwal - Supporting OC development Probono
9+ years of special purpose machine design experience | 4 Patents
Ex- General Motors | IIT Madras Engineering Design (B.Tech + M.Tech)
2. Suhani Mohan - CEO, Saral Designs
7+ years of experience in health & hygiene and development sector
Acumen Fellow | Forbes Trailblazer 2018 |
Ex-investment banker | IIT Bombay Metallurgy & Materials Science (B.Tech)
3. Siddharth Chinoy - Supporting OC development Probono
Ex-BMGF and USAID grantee, SLP Fellow
9 years of automation, hardware design experience
Ex-Sony Japan, Ex-Quidich, Ex-Embryyo | IIT Bombay (Computer Science, B.Tech,
M.Tech)
4.Abhinav Agarwal - Supporting OC development Probono
PSL - Director and CBO
Ex-entrepreneur, building products for 10+ years| IIT Bombay (Civil, B.Tech)
Ex-entrepreneur, building products for 10+ years| IIT Bombay (Civil, B.Tech)
