WHO's scientist Soumya Swaminathan says India has shown it could be global manufacturer

World Health Organization's Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan has lauded India’s vaccine manufacturing capacity highlighting that the country had proved that it could be a global manufacturer of life-saving vaccines. Speaking at Global Bio-India 2021 on Monday, March 1, Swaminathan also highlighted India’s pioneering efforts at developing vaccines. Presently, there are 30 vaccine candidates undergoing a different level of development in India.

"India has shown the capacity to be a manufacturer at the global scale and also be an innovator when it came to vaccine development. There is a huge amount of scope to study the impact of vaccines, which needs to be thought-through by a very coordinated approach," the reasercher was quoted as saying by ANI. 

Vaccines in India

The country has also become a global leader in providing vaccines to other countries. Two of its vaccines- Covaxin, developed indigenously by Biotech, and Covishield which is developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and being manufactured at Serum Institute of India has been shipped to over 25 nations. Additionally, the country also started its second phase of inoculations using the aforementioned vaccine shots.

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Speaking at the same conference, Union Minister Piyush Goyal pointed out that innovation has to be affordable for the people, accessible to the masses, and should have an impact on society while addressing the Global Bio-India Startup Conclave, 2021 organized by the Department of Biotechnology. During the event, the project development cell of DBT was launched. Five new technologies were also launched. Goyal said, "Innovation has to be affordable for the people, accessible to the masses, and should have an impact on society." 

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India, on March 1, began the world's largest vaccination drive by inoculating those above 60 yrs of age & those above 45 yrs with co-morbidities apart from Frontline workers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad were amongst those who took their 1st shot, in a move to dismiss scepticism about vaccines. Another public figure who got inoculated was 1983 World Cup winner Madan Lal who also received his first dose. 

Image: CGTN