Gates Foundation lauds India's fight against Covid, says it can be model for others

Mark Suzman hailed India saying it is in a "bright spot" as the country has accelerated its broader healthcare ecosystem.

New Delhi, Jan 17: Melinda Gates Foundation has lauded India's fight against the Covid crisis, saying it set a positive global example and it can be a model for others on how it addressed the manufacturing and distribution of vaccines at such a scale.

"We were proud to be able to help work with the Indian government and with partners like the Serum Institute of India, to help manufacture some of the vaccines and to help with some of the primary health care facilities to help with distribution and in some of the states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where we work closely, but it really is a model both because of the direct COVID response, but also because the infrastructure that's been put in place has lots of positive effects by other forms of healthcare," ANI quoted Mark Suzman, CEO of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as saying in an exclusive interview.

Gates Foundation, which has been working in India for nearly two decades, works across a number of sectors from agriculture to financial services, and health, among others.

He said that globally COVID has had a devastating impact on economic growth and health. And not just in terms of the direct impact of the disease itself, but the knock-on impact on economic growth on poverty on health. So across large parts, I think around a third of the developing world is likely to be in recession," he said.

He then claimed that India is in a "bright spot" as the country has accelerated its broader healthcare ecosystem. "From vaccination campaigns to nutrition campaigns to sanitation campaigns. And so in all of those areas, we're trying to sound the call to action and saying the world really needs to support and engage much more deeply so that we can start to accelerate progress again."

Since the start of the national COVID-19 vaccination drive on January 16 last year, India has administered to over 90 per cent of its eligible citizens first doses and 65 per cent second doses. Going by the government data, the country has administered 2.2 million doses.

Mark Suzman on India's G20 Presidency

According to him, India has shown a strong commitment to driving forward in mitigating global health issues, and broader development issues like digital infrastructure, and financial services, which again can be examples of the country addressing some of these issues.

"And so I think at the government of India's stated ambition to try and tackle both those things, the issues of pandemic preparedness and global health response so that we can both finish the job on COVID and be ready to address the next pandemic, but also to think about these wider development challenges and using new tools like the digital financial infrastructure that India has developed through UPI, but also some of the new initiatives like the use of environment Digital Health Initiative, which we think again as some very positive models that we'll be able to use in Africa and other parts of the developing world," the CEO said.