Have understanding with over 100 countries on recognition of vaccine certificates: Shringla

New Delhi, Dec 21 (PTI) The Ministry of External Affairs has worked on mutual recognition of Covid vaccine certificates that allows Indians to travel with reduced inconvenience and India has an understanding over it with more than 100 countries, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the eighth edition of Good Governance Day celebrations here, he said the disruptions caused by the Covid pandemic had a significant and continuing effect and the ministry responded with agility, speed and scale to the extraordinary challenges that it was confronted with.  "A de novo unit, the COVID Cell, that worked 24x7 to coordinate our COVID related operations, was created. This was resourced appropriately and coordinated with our diplomatic Missions and multiple stakeholders in India and abroad," he said.  Among other things, it worked on the Vande Bharat Mission -- the largest logistical mission of its type ever undertaken, Shringla said.

It played an equally central role with the government of India's Empowered Groups to mount a global procurement operation to source critical medical supplies during both the first and second waves, he said.

"We were also represented on the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 and in the Task Force on the COVID-19 vaccines," he said.

The Vande Bharat Mission is a case study in governance response to an unexpected challenge, he asserted, adding that it was a complex inter-agency process that was unprecedented in its size and complexity.  The entire population of Indians stranded in hundreds of locations was "mapped" using technology driven applications and they were assigned priorities, Shringla said.

Flight schedules and manifests were worked out and the capacity to process arrivals had to be repurposed to pandemic realities, he said.

SOPs for handling passengers returning from abroad, including protocols for quarantine, etc were generated and departure processes around the world had to be navigated, he said.  As the world began to unlock and reopen, the ministry worked on next steps and facilitated air bubble arrangements to assist movement of persons, he noted.

It has also worked on mutual recognition of vaccine certificates that allows Indians to travel safely and with reduced inconvenience, Shringla said.  "As of today we have such understandings with more than a hundred countries," he said.

The Foreign Secretary said the Indian missions and posts abroad also reacted with speed to assist Indians after Covid related restrictions were imposed, Shringla said.

Earlier, speaking at the same event, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said during the last seven and a half years, the government has been consistently working towards the goal of bringing government closer to our citizens.  It ensures that they become active participants in the governance process and make the engagement meaningful, he said.  The mantra here is "Minimum Government - Maximum Governance", Muraleedharan said.

"My Ministry's Passport Seva Programme is one such initiative that has brought in quantitative and qualitative changes in providing passport services to the citizens," he said.

MoS MEA Rajkumar Ranjan Singh said innovative practices, be it initiation of chat box facilities by Missions and Posts to address frequently asked questions or a 24x7 response systems by Consulate General of India in San Francisco, or the community outreach programs done by Pretoria and Kuwait, or the innovative ways in which the Indian Mission in Moscow has undertaken outreach initiatives to the Indian student communities in Russia, need to be institutionalised.  Creative solutions and best practices should be institutionalised, so that they do not wither away with change in personnel and personalities, Singh said. PTI ASK ZMN