India surplus in PPE kits, sanitizers production: Nitin Gadkari

New Delhi, Jun 18 (KNN) Lauding, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) contribution in the country’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, MSME minister Nitin Gadkari asserted that India has achieved a surplus in the production of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits and sanitizers.

''Two months before, we imported PPE kits from China but today MSME industry is making 5 lakh PPE kits per day. For instance, there are 17 partners in the Nagpur cluster,'' said the minister while addressing the members of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce in a video conference.

With the co-operation of the MSME ministry, the cluster is doing an excellent job. Today the cluster is making 10,000-12,000 PPE kits per day. Now we are surplus and have given NOC for exports and are exporting it,” Gadkari said.

Last week, Gadkari had asked the Commerce Ministry to allow exports of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, as the country has ramped up its capacity significantly over the last two months.

“We have tremendous capacity now. We don’t need to import PPE kits from China but we can now start exporting it," he had said, speaking at the launch a report prepared by National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) and Council on Energy Environment and Water (CEEW)-- Jobs, Growth and Sustainability: a new social contract for India’s recovery.

Similarly, domestic manufacturers have also received orders to export sanitizers, he added.

Gadkari also said that the government will also prepare a list of items imported and exported in the last three year as the first priority is to find a way out for import substitution.

Last month textiles minister Smriti Irani had also claimed India has crossed per day PPE kits production of 4.5 lakh and there were more than 600 companies’ lab certified to manufacture PPE.