Mr. Anand Mahindra, the Chairman of the Mahindra Group, has announced a series of initiatives to help the country in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. They include leveraging the Group’s production facilities and expertise to manufacture ventilators, donating his salary to help those most likely to suffer the financial fallout of the pandemic, and the use of Mahindra Holidays resorts across India as temporary care facilities. With the country short of facilities to test and quarantine the victims of this pandemic, he also announced that the project teams at Mahindra will assist the Government and the Indian Army in building temporary care facilities.

Earlier today, Dr Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra, tweeted that the Group has formulated a two-pronged strategy to manufacture much needed ventilators at short notice. “At one end, we along with two large PSUs are working with an existing manufacturer of high spec ventilators to help them to simplify design and scale up capacity.

On the other end, the Group is working on an automated version of the Bag Valve Mask ventilator (commonly known as Ambu bag),” he tweeted. “We hope to have a prototype ready in three days for approval. Once proven this design will be made available to all for manufacturing.”

Commenting on the development, Mr Mahindra said, “These are sophisticated machines costing between Rs5 to 10 lakh. This device is an interim lifesaver & the team estimates it will cost below Rs7,500.”

Mr. Mahindra also announced his decision to create a fund through the Mahindra Foundation to assist the hardest hit in its value chain, both small businesses and the self-employed. Besides announcing his decision to donate 100 percent of his salary to the COVID-19 fund, the Chairman also encouraged his colleagues to voluntarily contribute to the fund.