New Delhi, May 6: Union Minister of State in PMO DrJitendra Singh on Friday reiterated India’s commitment of ‘vaccine for all’ and also to ensure accessibility and affordability of the Vaccines.
He was addressing online the UN Meet of the 7th Annual Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals.
DrJitendra Singh, who is also the Union Minister of State (independent charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (independent charge) Earth Sciences besides MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, said, “India has been strongly advocating for the principle of equity in the WHO and has also proposed, along with South Africa, a TRIPS waiver at the WTO for COVID vaccines, diagnostics, and medicines.”
He said, “India is working actively with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator to realise this goal.”
The Multi-Stakeholder Forum this year is focussing on science, technology and innovation for building back better from the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
DrJitendra told the delegates that the enormous power of digital and information technology had been a key component of global response to COVID. He said, “Utilising India’s strength in the digital space, New Delhi decided to share with the world, India-developed Co-WIN App, to provide digital support to better organise vaccination drives. India has long been fostering Science Technology and Innovation and nurturing an enabling ecosystem to incubate and scale revolutionary ideas, help improve the quality of lives of people and provide solutions to global problems. This has become even more crucial in the current scenario.”
Referring to the global effort to overcome the challenges caused by the pandemic in the last two years, DrJitendra said that India emerged as a member of leading international scientific coalitions in vaccine research. “Our scientific community, along with the support of a robust pharmaceutical industry, have been successful in developing and producing safe, effective, and affordable vaccines, including the world’s first DNA based vaccine,” the Minister asserted.
Indian Minister cautioned the members, “The current data on COVID-19 cases demonstrates that we are still far from a post-pandemic world.” He called for meaningful partnership by pooling resources and sharing knowledge. DrJitendra said that Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) cooperation with a spirit of collaboration was a key to accelerate collective response to COVID-19 and also towards sustainable development. He reiterated that STI should become an inclusive and equitable tool for SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) delivery based on affordable, accessible and available technological innovation.