Indian-origin businessman pledges USD 10 million for oxygen supply in India

Houston, May 3

Indian-origin billionaire businessman Vinod Khosla has pledged USD 10 million for supplying medical oxygen to hospitals in India amidst an unprecedented second wave of the Covid pandemic in the country.

Taking to Twitter, the 66-year-old venture capitalist said there was a need to save lives as further delay might end up in more deaths.

"For @GiveIndia this isn't enough. They've received requests for 20,000 oxygen concentrators, 15,000 cylinders, 500 ICU beds, 100 ventilators, 10,000-beds Covid centres with requests coming from non-profits and hospitals all across India every day. We need to do a lot more urgently,” Khosla said on Sunday.

This is in continuation with the Sun Microsystems co-founder's efforts to fund hospitals for oxygen supplies.

"The Khosla family is adding USD 10 million to @GiveIndia to its previous commitment as a match and hoping others will join in this urgent need," Khosla said.

On Sunday, a record 3,689 daily COVID-19 fatalities pushed India's death toll to 2,15,542, while the infection count reached 1,95,57,457 with 3,92,488 more people testing positive for the contagion, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The active cases have also crossed the 33-lakh mark, it said. PTI