The Conversation R.C. BHARGAVA

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd chairman R.C. Bhargava is synonymous with the growth of the firm. The 86-year-old has spent half his life developing and managing operations at India’s largest carmaker. Today, as the world faces a pandemic, Maruti is shifting gears to help ease the pressure on India’s healthcare system by committing to contribute ventilators, masks, and other protective gear.

- PRERNA LIDHOO

RISING TO THE CHALLENGE

You intend to make 10,000 ventilators per month. Since this is not your area of expertise, what were some of the initial roadblocks?

The first point is that we’re not doing this in our factory because Maruti does not have either the know-how or the technology or an approved product which is a ventilator. So, we have joined hands with an approved manufacturer of ventilators, AgVa Healthcare. 1 This product has been approved by the government which has placed an order for 10,000 ventilators. Currently, that’s the order. And our strategy is… because AgVa Healthcare is a very small company and doesn’t have the means or the resources or the know-how to rapidly scale up production, that is where we have the expertise.

What is your synergy with AgVa Healthcare like?

We have secured a temporary working area in Noida to assemble the ventilators. We have got three of our vendors at the moment who are working to produce the components in large volumes for us to take up their production. The vendors themselves are by and large small companies. And we’re still checking but most of them will not have the ability to produce reliably in large volumes. So, that’s where we come in. 2