OxygenForIndia (OFI), a volunteer-run campaign to deliver medical oxygen in response to the 'COVID-19 second wave in India, recently welcomed on board Dr Indu Bhushan, the founding CEO of Ayushman Bharat. Dr Bhushan will co-lead the effort to form a National Oxygen Grid. The aim of this initiative is to solve the problem of oxygen shortages across India to ensure that no one ever dies due to lack of medical oxygen in the country.

The year 2021 saw an unprecedented rise in the demand for medical oxygen across the world, especially in India. Even as the pandemic wreaked havoc on one side, the situation sent Indians scampering to get medical oxygen wherever and whatever rate it was available in. To combat the situation, Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan, the founder and director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP) in Washington DC and New Delhi and a senior research scholar at Princeton University, founded OFI for large-scale deployment of volunteer-driven logistics network to supply medical oxygen.

The National Oxygen Grid will be set up in the peri-urban and rural healthcare facilities which are either charitable or privately operated.

Speaking about this, Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan, Founder and Director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP) said, “The acute need for oxygen predates 'COVID-19 and shortages are a constant problem particularly in rural India. Pregnant women and children with pneumonia can die without supplemental oxygen. Medical oxygen is among the most essential and best understood medical interventions. We are delighted to have Dr Indu Bhushan on board with us in this initiative.”

Dr Indu Bhushan, Ex CEO, Ayushman Bharat said, “We can, and should, develop a medical oxygen infrastructure that can keep pace with our ongoing needs, the pandemic, and any future threat. An ideal oxygen grid for the country would work much like an electricity grid, with central generation (LMO), transmission (tankers and cylinders), storage (liquid and gaseous), and decentralized production (PSA generators and oxygen concentrators). A sustainable oxygen grid — one that supplies medical oxygen when and where it is required — needs both centralized and decentralized production, plus reliable transmission, and storage. Such a system would ensure that rural areas are served and that oxygen can be diverted to hotspots.”

A civil servant-turned-economist with a career spanning nearly 37 years, Dr Bhushan is a former Indian Administrative Service (IAS: 1983 Rajasthan) officer and took voluntary retirement after serving for nearly a decade. He was most recently, the CEO of Ayushman Bharat.

Dr Bhushan was recently selected for the Global Achievement Award by Johns Hopkins University, his alma mater. He has also been awarded the Government of India’s National Award for E-Governance 2019-2020 (Gold Award) for Excellence in Government Process Re-engineering for Digital Transformation for Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY on behalf of the National Health Authority.