Indian to receive British honour for his service during pandemic

The pandemic plunged the world into a period of great distress, and yet even in these unfortunate circumstances there were people who went out of their way to ease things for others. Gurusamy Krishnamoorthy is one such person.

The Madurai native, chief executive officer of Penlon, a British medical device manufacturing firm, is all set to receive the Member of the Royal Order of British Empire (MBE) recognition from the Queen shortly.

The story goes back a couple of years.When COVID-19 broke out Prime Minister Boris Johnson had called on companies to manufacture ventilators. “At the time the National Health Service (NHS) had less than 10,000 ventilators, but the clinicians predicted that at the rate the infection was spreading, they would need at least 25,000 ventilators in a matter of weeks,” he recalled, during a visit to Chennai.

Soon after Mr. Johnson’s announcement, big companies came forward and got to work. A committee of bureaucrats and regulators called for applications, and within days, 500 companies had applied. Penlon also applied though it did not manufacture intensive care unit ventilators at the time. “We submitted our own proposal and were called by the screening committee and went through several stages of screening and assessment. We were chosen, and the expectation at that point was 12,000 ventilators,” Mr. Gurusamy said.

A consortium of companies was created with Penlon as the hub. “We created an enterprise to manufacture from five different places, and Penlon led the whole thing. I asked the team to work on an existing device; we had to create a machine within a week’s time,” he said. As many as 4,000 workers were employed to work three round-the-clock shifts. Within a fortnight, the medical health regulatory authority approved the equipment. In 12 weeks’ time, 11,700 ventilators were delivered, he added.

“After vaccination, this is one of the most successful projects,” Mr. Gurusamy said. The U.K. exported ventilators to African countries and Bangladesh.

This effort resulted in an award from the Royal Academy of Engineering. Later, he was nominated for the MBE. “As I am an Indian citizen, it will be an honorary award,” he said, which will be presented by the Queen at a ceremony in the palace.