Atmanirbhar Bharat: Wonder boy from NIFT challenges Chinese supremacy in mask machine manufacturing

When COVID-19 opened unchartered opportunities for Indian rnindustry to jump into mask and body coverall manufacturing, industries complained about lack of machinery availability in India and even attempted to compromise on the product specification, but very few dared to take up steps to fill up the shortage of machinery and replaced costly import by manufacturing indigenous machines. One such champion belongs to National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Delhi, who has broken the stereotype of easy import and adopted the arduous journey of manufacturing of indigenous machines to support Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-Reliant India). Meet the wonder boy, Vaibhav Agarwal, a seventh semester student from NIFT Delhi, who has created indigenous N95 mask manufacturing machine which is the first of its kind for the industry. Hailing from a business family where the approach was to source what’s best available in the world, Vaibhav sensed that mask would be in demand at the beginning of the pandemic itself. But once the COVID-19 lockdown started, all efforts for purchasing a mask manufacturing machine failed due to long lead time and uncertainty of Chinese imported machines and exorbitant price quoted by local manufacturers. That’s when Vaibhav started toying with the idea of manufacturing a machine of his own, and started exploring the machine features, mechanisms and output. For more insights, click @ Apparel Resources