Waiver of vaccine patent will ensure scaling up of inoculation drive, says foreign secy

India’s proposal at the World Trade Organization for waiver of patent protections for Covid19 vaccines is an important step for ensuring scaling up of manufacture and availability of vaccines, foreign secretary Harsh Shringla said on Friday. In a virtual address to a UN Security Council debate on international peace and security and multilateralism, Shringla said the challenges of today’s interdependent world cannot be addressed by outdated systems and a reformed Security Council is at the core of India’s call for reformed multilateralism.