Govt allows export of made-in-India ventilators

The government has given its nod to a proposal from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Moh&FW) to permit the export of made-in-India ventilators.

The proposal floated at the group of ministers' (GoM) 19th meet on COVID-19 on August 31 was approved, the Health Ministry said in a statement on Saturday (August 1).

Following the approval, the decision was communicated to the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), which then issued a notification allowing the export of indigenously manufactured ventilators.

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The ministry said in a press release that the decision taken "comes on the heels of India continuing to maintain a progressively declining low rate of case fatality of COVID-19 patients, which currently stands at 2.15%, which means that fewer numbers of active cases are on ventilators".

It added that as on July 31 (2020), "only 0.22% of the active cases were on ventilators across the country".

The ministry further stated in its statement that "there has been substantial growth in the domestic manufacturing capacity of ventilators" and presently there over 20 domestic manufacturers for ventilators as compared to January 2020.

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India had earlier banned the export of all types of ventilators through a DGFT notification on March 24 to ensure their domestic availability to effectively fight the novel coronavirus.

The ministry expressed in its statement that now that the export of ventilators has been allowed, it hopes that the "domestic ventilators would be in a position to find new markets for Indian ventilators in foreign countries".