Q) Being the pharmacy of the world, India needs to rise to the occasion and cater to the demand for vaccines in the country as well as facilitate inoculation of the global population, especially in poorer countries. Discuss.
Why this question?
Issue of current importance
Key demand of the Question
Role India can play in vaccination of the global population.
Discuss- back up the answer by carefully selected evidence to make a case for and against an argument, or point out the advantages and disadvantages of the given context and finally arrive at a conclusion.
Give an overview of the context of the question.
In the first part, highlight the potential that India has in helping the world in their vaccination efforts.
In the next part, discuss the approach that should be adopted by India in this regard.
Conclude with a way forward.
The fight against the deadly COVID 19 has become tougher day by day especially with the evolution of deadly variants of the virus. It calls for globally coordinated efforts to build herd immunity through mass vaccination and to develop new vaccines or tweak the existing ones to become effective against the new variants.
India has been a key player in the fight against the virus both locally and globally:
- India stands out as an essential component to a concrete global action plan being readied to fight Covid-19, including for large-scale vaccine manufacturing.
- It has a very important role to play for ensuring greater international cooperation in the post-Covid-19 world to fight any future pandemic and for addressing some other serious global challenges including those posed by climate change and economic inequalities.
- India has been campaigning at the WTO for a TRIPS waiver for production of vaccines against COVID19.
- In the initial phases, India sent vaccines to more than 70 countries including her neighbours under its Vaccine Maitri programme.
- Institutions like FICCI and US-India Business Council and US-India Strategic partnership Forum have been working on oxygen concentrators and ventilators.
For India to continue being a responsible global actor that plays a central and vital role in the mission to vaccinate the world against COVID-19, India needs to build the capability and capacity at home first. We must ramp up production, vaccinate our population, and then embark on the essential task of making the world safe for all, and not just the rich.
For ages together, India has been propagating the idea of 'One-world family' or 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', and which was not really comprehended in its truest sense, by the western world. This pandemic has not only taught the essence of 'one-world family' to the entire world but also demonstrated its practical implementation for all to appreciate.