National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) has signed a technology licensing agreement for the manufacturing knowhow of a PPE suit named NavRakshak with an Agra-based apparel manufacturing entity.

NRDC was established in 1953 by the government of India with the primary objective of promoting, developing, and commercializing the technologies, knowhow, inventions, patents, and processes emanating from various national R&D institutions, universities, etc.

The company that got the licence is a registered micro enterprise under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Act, said a government press release. It is already manufacturing PPE kits in and around Agra, and supplying to various hospitals. It now has an annual production target of over one million PPE kits, using the licensed knowhow of NavRakshak to meet the increased requirement of PPE kits enforced by the Covid crisis.

NavRakshak PPE has been developed principally by Dr. Arnab Ghosh, a naval doctor. He has employed his personal experiences in using the PPE for the comfort and protection of doctors. It incorporates superior quality breathable fabric to make the PPE suit while its design innovation eliminates the need of costly taping and sealing of the seam, which is otherwise needed in other PPEs available in the market. The fabric, suit and seam have been found to meet the synthetic blood penetration resistance criteria comfortably.

The prototype development took place earlier at the Naval Dockyard, Mumbai, and it was tested and certified at the Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Allied Sciences..