Mumbai: Industrialist Harsh Mariwala said Monday he is spearheading a Rs 2.5 crore effort to find solutions to limit the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mariwala, along with two non-profits, has set up the corpus to find solutions for fighting the spread of the virus within the next one month.
‘Marico Innovation Foundation’ has invited med-tech entrepreneurs, corporates and innovators to solve the med-tech challenges faced in the wake of on-going COVID-19 crisis with a prize of Rs 2.5 crore, ‘Marico’ said in a statement earlier in the day.
“We will look for solutions that can be scaled up fast to cover a large section of population, is affordable and can be quickly implemented given that we are already in the middle of things,” Mariwala said. “The solutions can be in manufacturing ventilators, personal protective equipment, masks etc,” he added.
The firm has invited entries for ‘Innovate2BeatCOVID’ to find solutions for healthcare challenges.
“Marico Innovation Foundation is inviting med-tech entrepreneurs, corporates and innovators – in fact, any person – who can who can provide innovative solutions for two of the direst needs today in the country, namely low-cost ventilators / respiratory solutions and personal protective equipment. I too, am making a pledge in my personal capacity, making the total grant value to Rs 2.50 crores,” Mariwala informed.
A team of evaluators has been formed which will be looking at the proposals and choosing the ones to get the grant.
It can be noted that a slew of industry people have started donating sums to various corpuses for COVID-19.
Mariwala said when it comes to the philosophy of giving he does not believe in pure financial or monetary help and would like to tie it up to a goal. The industry veteran said it is too early to assess the impact or predict the future trajectory of consumption in the country and stressed that a spurt in the first week of the lockdown can be attributed to panic buying.
PTI