As the cases of coronavirus in India are increasing day by day, there is a rise in the need for oxygen. As per the data released by the government, the export of oxygen from India has been doubled.
India has exported 9000 metric tonnes of oxygen between April 2020 and January 2021, earned 8.9 crores from this trading.
In the financial year 2020, India exported only 4,500 metric tonnes of oxygen and the oxygen export has witnessed an unexplainable increase.
In January 2020, India exported 352 metric tonnes of oxygen while in January 2021 export increase by 732 percent in January 2021. The country exported 2,193 metric tonnes of oxygen in December 2020, 308 percent more than export in December 2019.
These values raise questions over several government policies as several states in the country have flagged an oxygen emergency.
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Short supply of medical oxygen, a crucial element to cure coronavirus, has been reported whereas the second wave of the coronavirus is demanding a tremendous amount of oxygen supply. On Tuesday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal stated that Delhi hospitals are left with few hours of oxygen.
The Delhi High Court halted the Center on its decision to ban oxygen for industrial use from tomorrow. The High Court questioned, "Why not do it today itself. Why wait for April 22? Lives are at the stalk. Are you going to tell patients to wait till April 22?"
A similar crisis can be seen in Maharastra, the state contributing 60% of corona cases. The Maharashtrian government has requested the Centre to provide more medical oxygen as the number of cases is rapidly increasing.
Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and several other parts of the country are facing the same problem.
Several companies, Reliance Industries, SAIL, Tata Steel, and many more have initiated to supply oxygen from their industries for life-saving purposes. According to the Steel Ministry, the steel industry will supply 1,500 metric tonnes of medical oxygen for everyday purposes from 28 oxygen plants from the steel facility