"The initial goal was to distribute 40,000 reusable cylinders and 20,000 concentrators in 20 rural and urban centers of India, but beyond that, the OxygenForIndia movement hopes to ensure that such preventable deaths become a thing of the past even in normal times and spur a long-term fight to secure supplies in a sustained way globally."

"We want to assure people they will have oxygen at home, so that hospital capacity is freed up for the sickest patients."

The main issue in India is not a lack of oxygen supply but instead a broken infrastructure. Oxygen is available but few have access to it. That last mile is where OxygenForIndia comes in, helping bridge the gap between suppliers and patients.

Oxygen for India is currently providing oxygen concentrators in Delhi. In Kolkata, Ranchi, Guwahati, Bengaluru and Chennai. Oxygen For India is looking to raise $1,200,000 (approximately INR 89,491,000) to provide 3,500 cylinders and 700 concentrators free of cost to hospitals and patients who are managing their COVID-19 care at home, without the need for hospital admission. Oxygen For India also wants to enable the turnover of beds to allow new patients to be admitted to hospitals, by meeting the oxygen demand at home.

OxygenForIndia delivers medical oxygen for free to patients in seven Indian cities. The group was founded by Ramanan Laxminarayan, an economist and epidemiologist who directs the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, a research outfit based in Washington and New Delhi.

Oxygen for India, organized by the international Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, is setting up help desks at various hospitals to ensure that people get access to oxygen cylinders and concentrators for free.

"The main challenge isn't necessarily an oxygen supply issue. It's getting the oxygen from manufacturers to the hospitals and patients. It's a transportation issue. It's the last mile. We have developed a model to help close this gap and are deploying it throughout the country."

"This issue is very close to me and also a humanitarian crisis so not just my personal relationship to it but being someone in the world who wants to do good and help solve this problem."

"The narrative that India defeated COVID led a lot of people into a false sense of complacency."

"Founded by director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy Dr. Ramanan Laxminarayan, OxygenForIndia is a collective organization raising funds to provide medical oxygen supplies to hospitals and citizens in India in dire need."

"It is a time to see how we show the best of our human values while facing a crisis of a proportion none of us has ever witnessed in our lifetime"