PM Modi explains India's COVID battle at US-ISPF Summit 2020: 'future-proofing citizens'

Delivering the keynote address at the US-ISPF US-India Summit 2020, PM Narendra Modi, on Thursday, highlighted the challenges faced by India due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the initial days. Terming this year's theme as 'Navigating New Challenges', he said that the current situation demands a 'fresh mindset'- one with human-centric development and cooperation. India currently is the third-worst affected country by COVID-19 with 38,53,407 infections and  67,376 fatalities while the US which is the epicenter of the virus has 63,04,326 cases and 1,90,321 fatalities.

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PM Modi: 'Future-proofing our citizens' 

"While looking at the way ahead we should keep our focus on- ramping up our capacities, securing the poor and future-proofing our citizens. India was among the first in creating a responsive system of lockdowns, advocate the use of masks and face coverings as a public health measure and create public awareness campaigns about social distancing.  In record time, medical infrastructure was scaled up- be it COVID hospitals, ICU capacities and more. Starting from one testing lab in January, we now have around sixteen hundred labs across the country," said PM Modi.

Talking about India's low COVID-19 fatality rate, PM Modi said that the recovery rate is also steadily rising. He also expressed satisfaction over the pro-active approach by India's business community - highlighting that India was now the second-largest PPE kits manufacturer in the world. Moreover, he said India with its 1.3 billion-strong population, battled COVID-19 along with other crisis such as floods, cyclones, locust attack.

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PM Modi lists social schemes

Listing India's several social schemes rolled out during the lockdown he said that the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana’ provided free food grain to 800 million for 8 months. The scheme also has provided free cooking gas to 80 million families, cash support to 345 million farmers and providing work to migrant workers by creating almost 200 million person-days of work, said Modi. The Centre had rolled out Rs 20 lakh crore economic package as India opened up from the world's most stringent lockdown.

As the economy reopens, he also assured that the Indian government believed that Ease of living is as important as the Ease of doing business. Highlighting India's young population with 65% population less than 35 years, he said India is an aspirational country that has decided to take the nation to new heights. He reaffirmed that the nation had a commitment to democracy and diversity as well as political stability and policy continuity.

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India's lockdown

While US was one of the few nations which never declared a nationwide lockdown - earning sharp criticism - India had first imposed a complete lockdown on March 25 for three weeks till April 15, grinding the nation to a standstill with only essential services and goods allowed to function. The nation began easing its total lockdown from May amid the migrant worker crisis, flagging off Shramik trains and announcing an Aatma Nibhar Bharat package, to revive the economy. With more extensions, MHA then allowed the delineation of red, green and orange zones as per state and UT governments- kicking off the 'unlock' stages.

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