The Ventilator Project

A raging pandemic, a dearth of life-saving equipment, and ninety days to manufacture a world-class ventilator. On 24 March 2020, a nationwide lockdown was imposed in India in the face of a formidable adversary, the Covid-19 pandemic. With the number of cases increasing exponentially, hospitals were faced with a dangerous shortage of life-saving equipment and personnel. In response to the imminent crisis, Amitabha Bandyopadhyay and Srikant Sastri formed the IIT Kanpur ventilator Consortium as a task force to assist a young startup, Nocca Robotics, in building affordable high-quality ventilators for India's cash-strapped hospitals. Under the mentorship of reputed industry leaders, the task force and the Nocca team worked tirelessly against unprecedented odds - trammelled by a ban on imports and telecommuting through Zoom and Whatsapp in the face of stringent lockdown restrictions - to manufacture the Noccarc V310 in record time. This is the incredible story of its conception, creation and success, in the words of the task force co-leaders themselves. Inspiring and riveting, The Ventilator Project also offers an unmatched blueprint for business in the post-Covid era through first-hand lessons gleaned during the task force's phenomenal ninety-day run. It proves that India, with its deep recesses of talent and ingenuity, has the potential to be a world leader in both business and social impact.

Srikant Sastri is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and IIM Calcutta, and wears many professional hats. He is Chairman, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, and a board member at several other incubators. As an entrepreneurship evangelizer, he created the ChaloStartup web series and is on several government advisory bodies. As Chairman, I3G Advisory Network, he trains and advises corporations on accelerated business transformation.