India’s biggest hospital chain, a government organisation and many others line up for Indian-American billionaire Vinod Khosla’s offer to fund oxygen supplies

• From Apollo Hospitals, India’s largest chain, to Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee to many NGOs and private initiatives have sought help.
• Khosla’s tweet saw a flood of responses seeking resources to tackle the explosion of COVID-19 infections in India.
• In the last week alone, India has seen over 1.8 million new COVID-19 cases and over 11,000 deaths.
• A big chunk of the fatality has been caused by inadequate health infrastructure like the dearth of hospitals beds and oxygen.

Within hours of his tweet offering funding to Indian hospitals looking to import oxygen, Indian American billionaire investor Vinod Khosla is flooded with responses.

Even Sangita Reddy, the Joint Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals, India’s largest chain in that space, responded soon enough. “Vinod, how generous and timely. We are running two medical college hospitals mostly free and have free wards in most of our hospitals. Will reach out. Speed is of the essence,” she wrote in response to the offer from the founder of Khosla Ventures, and the co-founder of Sun Microsystems.


Even the government-funded Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, under the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that it would need Khosla’s support for the new oxygen concentrators it aims to set up across the country.

COVID-19 infections have exploded in India and just in the last seven days, the country has seen over 1.8 million new cases and over 11,000 deaths. The existing health infrastructure has been stretched beyond its limits and a bulk of the damage is caused by lack of oxygen supply and beds in hospitals.

No wonder then, from Manjinder Singh Sirsa (President of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee) to the Cancer Aid Society to Hemkunt Foundation to numerous other non-government organisations and private initiatives sought the support of the Silicon Valley venture capitalist worth nearly $3 billion, according to Forbes.

His son Neal Khosla,, too, has been voicing his thoughts on what’s happening in India. The healthtech entrepreneur ⁠— founder of the Curai Health, which provides artificial intelligence driven primary consultation for patients needing cardiac care, diabetic care, mental health care ⁠— lashed out at the Biden administration for not extending its support by allowing the export of vaccines and raw materials to India.


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