Banking sector has great role in healing post-COVID economy: Harsh Vardhan

The banking sector has a great role to play in healing the post-COVID economy as the implementation arm of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Monday.

Launching a Punjab National Bank's (PNB) campaign to distribute facemasks and sanitisers here, he also expressed confidence that the country will tide over the crisis with the collective effort.

He underlined that India has one of the lowest COVID-19 case fatality rates in the world. "It is 2.46 per cent today due to the effective clinical management protocols of the government," he said.

"We have effectively handled many diseases in the country. We have eradicated Poliomyelitis and Smallpox, addressed the challenge of AIDS, Nipah virus, Swine Flu and Zika.

“We have been able to prevent Ebola from entering the country. I am confident that with the collective efforts of all, we shall be able to meet this challenge too," he was quoted as saying in a health ministry statement.

Lauding PNB's contribution to the national cause, Vardhan said that Punjab National Bank, India's first Swadeshi Bank, was established in the spirit of nationalism and inspired by freedom fighters like Lala Lajpat Rai. It was the first bank purely managed by Indians with Indian capital, the health ministry said, quoting him.

"During the pre-independence period, the bank had the honour of having account of Jallianwala Bagh Committee which was subsequently operated by Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru," he was quoted as saying in the health ministry statement.

"Banking sector has a great role in healing the post-COVID economy as the implementation arm of Prime Minister's Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan," he said.

PNB's 22 zonal offices across the nation also participated through video conferencing. The bank is distributing such material in 662 districts throughout the country, he said, according to the statement.

Referring to the collective fight against COVID-19 under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, “Right after China informed about the virus to the world community, the first meeting of the Committee of Experts was held within 24 hours in the Health Ministry.

"The country has substantially progressed from just one lab equipped to test for the novel virus in National Institute of Virology, Pune in January 2020 to about 1268 labs, as of now,” he said, adding the country will have the capacity to test one million people within the next 10 to 12 weeks.

PNB CEO SS Mallikarjuna Rao said that after the PM’s appeal, they have collaborated with different stakeholders such as Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs), Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) etc, to contribute to the strengthening of the economy.

(Photo Credit: PTI)