Indian-American businessman pledges $10mn for oxygen to India

Vinod Khosla, Indian-American technology guru and entrepreneur, has pledged $10 million towards providing oxygen supplies to India amid the worsening second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.

Taking to Twitter late Sunday night, Khosla, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, said: "The Khosla Family is adding $10 million to @GiveIndia to it's previous commitment as a match and hoping others will join in this urgent need. "There is large and very urgent needs and a day's delay costs lives. One day at one hospital without oxygen had eight people die gasping for breadth."

Last last month, Khosla had announced that he was "willing to fund hospitals in India that need funding to import bulk planeloads of oxygen or supplies into India to increase supply. Public hospitals/NGO's also pls reach out". The businessman's announcement on Sunday comes amid oxygen shortages across India, particularly in the national capital.

For 11 days in a row, India has reported over 3 lakh new Covid-19 cases, while more than 3,000 casualties have been registered for the past five days. India's total coronavirus tally now stands at 1,95,57,457, the highest since the pandemic started in 2020, with 33,49,644 active cases and 2,15,542 deaths so far.