Needs globalisation based on fairness, equality & humanity post-Covid: Indian envoy in US

Observing that coronavirus pandemic has shown existing international system's limitations, India's envoy in US has said that world after COVID-19 needs a template of globalisation based on fairness, equality and humanity. Ecomic growth and human welfare need to go hand in hand and re is a need to ensure equitable, affordable and timely access to health products and techlogies for all, India's Ambassador to US Taranjit Singh Sandhu said in a virtual interaction with Asia Group hosted by former US Ambassador to India Richard Verma on Monday.

" current pandemic shows limitations of existing international system. In post-COVID world, we need a template of globalisation based on fairness, equality and humanity," Sandhu said.

Indian Pharma companies are global leaders in producing affordable low cost medicines and vaccines, he said, adding that India is a reliable partner for providing affordable medicines to US.

"Our long-standing and robust partnership with US in area of health and scientific research has furr deepened during time of pandemic," he said.

Similarly, India has been working with US private sector in vaccine development. Serum Institute of India has collaborated with Codnix Inc - a New York based clinical-st Biotechlogy Company - to rapidly co-develop a live-attenuated vaccine against emergent coronavirus, Sandhu said.

Bharat Biotech, Hyderabad has collaborated with University of Wisconsin–Madison and vaccine company FluGen to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 called CoroFlu, he said. Sandhu said that containment of virus and ecomic recovery will require a strong international cooperation to complement national policy efforts.

India is also working with its international partners, including its neighbours, to combat pandemic. It has delivered medical supplies and assistance to over 123 partner countries, he said.

"We have taken lead in SAARC region through an Emergency Relief corpus with an initial seed fund of USD 10 million. Our Rapid Response Medical Teams have been deployed in Maldives, Kuwait. Our health experts are sharing best practices through online training for our neighbours and are active in global efforts to develop remedies and vaccines," Indian diplomat said.

ting that much has changed in last few weeks, Sandhu said that world looks a completely different place as nation after nation has taken shelter at home to stop relentless march of invisible enemy. Understandably, each country has erected its line of defence with aim to minimise loss of life.

" global health crisis has brought in its wake an ecomic crisis of a scale that has t been seen in a long time.

"Grappling with se twin crises, governments today face an impossible choice between public health and ecomy. We will need a delicate balancing act. We need to revitalise our ecomies as well as enhance resilience, scalability and sustainability of our healthcare systems," he added.