India exported 23 lakh personal protection equipment (PPE) to five countries including the US, the UK and the UAE in July. 

Earlier, there was no domestic manufacturing of PPE in the country and almost all of them were imported. The ‘Make in India’ spirit embedded in the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan’ has resulted in providing resilience and self-sufficiency to the country for various medical equipment including PPE. 

PPE production capacity has increased so much that it has become a Rs 7,000-crore industry in India, the biggest after China.

How India achieved this growth in production and export?

At the start of the pandemic, there was a global shortage experienced for all kinds of medical equipment including N95 masks, PPE kits, ventilators, etc. Most of the products were not being manufactured in the country as many of the necessary components were to be procured from other countries. The rising global demand due to the pandemic resulted in their scarce availability in the foreign markets.

Turning the pandemic into an opportunity to develop its domestic market for production of medical equipment, with the combined efforts of ministry of health and family welfare, ministry of textiles, ministry of pharmaceuticals, department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and others, India has hugely ramped up its own manufacturing capacity.

As part of Centre’s continued efforts towards progressively augmenting and strengthening the medical infrastructure across the country, various policy decisions have been taken on a regular basis.

While the Centre is supplying PPE kits, N95 masks, ventilators, etc, to states/UTs, states are also procuring these items directly. Between March and August 2020, they have procured 1.40 crore indigenous PPE from their own budgetary resources. During the same period, the Centre has distributed 1.28 crore PPE to states, UTs and central institutions, free of cost.

In view of the strengthened domestic production capacity and having met the domestic requirements for PPEs, the revised notification of the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in July 2020 permitted export of PPEs. This has substantially aided India to position itself in the global export market of PPEs.

Some other examples that boost call for ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’

The IIT Alumni Council, launched the country’s largest social initiative with a targeted investible corpus of Rs 21,000 crore, for setting up the world’s largest viral infection testing lab with one crore monthly capacity in Mumbai. 

Reliance Jio announced plans for ‘Made in India’ 5G network. It will use 100 per cent homegrown technologies and solutions.

The defence ministry imposing an import embargo on 101 items in a staged manner. The military will be required to buy items from Indian defence manufacturers.