Indian-origin billionaire businessman Vinod Khosla pledges $10 mn for oxygen supply in India

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

Vinod Khosla. File

Indian-origin billionaire businessman Vinod Khosla has pledged $10 million for supplying medical oxygen to hospitals in India amidst an unprecedented second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

Coronavirus updates — May 3, 2021

Taking to Twitter, the 66-year-old venture capitalist said that there was a need to save lives as further delay may 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 & hospitals all across India every day. We need to do a lot more urgently,” Mr. Khosla said on May 2.

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

Also read: India had three times more liquid medical oxygen than demand by 12 States, Centre told Supreme Court

“The Khosla Family is adding $10 million to @GiveIndia to its previous commitment as a match and hoping others will join in this urgent need,” Ms. Khosla said.

On May 2, 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.