These IITians made a world-class ventilator at warp speed to fight pandemic

Created in 90 days flat, the start-up's device now offers a formula to hasten the journey from lab to market

As the economy ground to a halt in March last year, Nikhil Kurele and Harshit Rathore were about to start a new business. T

They had responded to an email from IIT Kanpur, their alma mater, inviting proposals from start-ups to make ventilators to fight the pandemic.
 

Neither had seen a ventilator before, but as they figured out how to keep their two-year-old, Pune-based start-up, Noccarc Robotics, afloat, they reasoned ventilators were the need of the hour.
 

“If had we not taken that chance, we wouldn't have survived,” says Kurele with cheery confidence exactly a year into the journey.