Strong, self-reliant India stands for greater good of world: Modi ‘Ready to mass produce vaccine once scientists give go-ahead’
New digital card announced for each citizen’s health; India to manufacture for the world
nNEWDELHI: A strong, confident and “aatmanirbhar” (self-reliant) India is essential not just for itself, but for the sake of larger global good, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday in the course of a wide-ranging speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort to mark India’s 74th Independence Day.
His 86-minute long speech also focused on the two other issues most Indians are worried about now -- the coronavirus pandemic (where Modi said his government has a plan ready to distribute a vaccine once it is found) and China (where, without naming the country, he referred to the country’s resolve to defend its sovereignty). And like some of previous speeches on Independence Day, this one too had a target -- connecting each of India’s roughly 600,000 villages through optic fibre cable within 1,000 days.
But self-reliance, the corner stone of the NDA government’s policy response to the coronavirus disease, was theme of the speech. The PM outlined the contours of this new self-reliant India across all spheres — education, health, agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructure, trade, defence, foreign policy, environment, digital connectivity; for all
NEWDELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said three Covid-19 vaccine candidates were being tested in India and the country is awaiting the go-ahead from scientists to begin their mass production. He added that a road map for the distribution of the vaccine to every single Indian in the least possible time was also ready.
“At present, testing for three vaccines is in different stages in the country. Once we get a green signal from our scientists, we will launch a massive production of the vaccine. We have made all the preparations,” Modi said.
Indian biotech companies have developed two of the three vaccine candidates that have entered the human trial stage in India. Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has developed a vaccine in collaboration with the NIV Pune. Zydus Cadila has developed the second Dna-based vaccine candidate, which, too, is in Phase II trial.
The third vaccine is by Oxford University in collaboration with the Swedish-british biotech company Astrazeneca.