More India-made vaccines will be available soon: PM ASSAM: BJP TO CONTEST POLLS WITH ITS NEW ALLY UPPL
New Delhi, Jan. 28: India will soon make available many more Covid-19 vaccines to other countries after two Made-In-India jabs have already been introduced to the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday while emphasising the country’s global responsibility in fighting the pandemic.
In a special address at the World Economic Forum’s online Davos Agenda Summit, Modi also said he wants to assure the global business community that situation will now change rapidly on the economic front also and invited businesses from all over to participate in the country’s growth journey.
Mr Modi said that some had said in FebruaryMarch 2020 that India would be the worst affected country by Covid-19 and would face a “tsunami of corona infections”.
“Some had talked about 70-80 crore people expected to get infected in India, while some talked about over 20 lakh possible deaths but India did not let the disappointment get better of it,” he said.
“When Covid arrived, India had its share of problems. At the beginning of last year, several experts and organisations had made several predictions that India would be most affected by the pandemic. Looking at the condition of countries with better health infrastructure, the world was right in worrying about us,” he said.
The Prime Minister, however, said in the midst of numerous doubts, he was here with “a message of belief, positivity and hope from over 1.3 billion Indians”.
Mr Modi said, “We transformed the fight against coronavirus into a people’s movement and today India is among the most successful countries in saving lives.”
Mr Modi said India has started the world’s largest coronavirus vaccination programme and its speed can be imagined from the fact that over 23 lakh health workers have been vaccinated in just 12 days.
In the next few months, we would complete our target of vaccinating 30 crore old people and people with co-morbidities, he said. He said India has ensured that it follows its global responsibility by sending essential medicines to over 150 countries while Covid-19 vaccines are also being sent to other countries.
“While two India-made vaccines have already been introduced to the world, many more vaccines will be made available from India,” he said.
“India’s upcoming vaccines will help other countries at a swifter pace to fight the pandemic,” he added. —
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has made it clear that it would contest the upcoming Assembly polls in alliance with its new ally, the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL), instead of its existing ally Bodoland People’s Front (BPF). The BJP fought against the BPF in the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) polls in December despite ruling Assam together since 2016 along with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). The BPF still has three ministers in the Sarbananda Sonowal government.
The senior BJP leader and finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma made this announcement while addressing a public meeting at Udalguri. He said, “The BJP has decided to contest forthcoming Assembly polls in coalition with UPPL.”
“We would announce seat sharing with UPPL in February,” said Sarma at the public meeting, organised to celebrate the first anniversary of the signing of the Bodo peace accord with the Central government on January 27, 2020 in New Delhi in the presence of Union home minister Amit Shah.
“It is final that the BJP and UPPL would contest the Assembly polls together. In BTC areas, BJP would contest the Assembly election under the leadership of UPPL,” said Sarma, who is also the convener of the BJPled North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) alliance of regional parties.
The BJP on Wednesday also flagged off mobile vans to seek public views on the party manifesto. Assam Chief Minister Sarbanada Sonowal flagged off the mobile vans in presence of state party president Ranjeet Kumar Dass, Sarma and Guwahati MP Queen Oja.