Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 19, 2020, delivered the keynote address at Grand Challenges Annual Meeting 2020. Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said the future will be shaped by societies that invest in science and innovation. He added science will never prosper in silos and the Grand Challenges Programme has understood this ethos well. He commended the scale of this programme wherein several nations were engaged globally and addressed diverse issues such as Antimicrobial Resistance, Maternal and Child Health, Agriculture, Nutrition, WaSH – (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene), and many others.
The Prime Minister said the global pandemic has made us realise the importance of teamwork. He said the diseases do not have geographic boundaries and do not discriminate on the grounds of faith, race, gender or colour. He added these diseases also include several communicable and non-communicable diseases that are impacting people. He said a strong and vibrant scientific community and good scientific institutions in India have been India’s greatest assets, especially during the last few months, while fighting COVID-19.
The Prime Minister said COVID-19 death rate in India is very low in spite of the large population due to the people powered and people driven approach. He added today, there is a decline in the number of cases per day, decline in the growth rate of cases and, has one of the highest recovery rates of 88 percent. He said this happened because India: was one of the first countries to adopt a flexible lockdown, was one of the first to encourage the usage of masks, actively began to work on effective contact-tracing and was one of the earliest to deploy the rapid antigen tests.
The Prime Minister remarked India is now at the forefront of vaccine development for COVID. He announced that more than 30 indigenous vaccine are being developed in our country and three of them are in an advanced stage. He said India is already working on putting a well-established Vaccine delivery system in place and this digitised network along with digital health ID will be used to ensure immunisation of our citizens. He pointed that India is known for its proven capacity to produce quality medicine and vaccine at low cost. More than 60 percent of the Vaccine for Global Immunisation are being manufactured in India.
The Prime Minister listed many interventions made in the last 6 years like better sanitation, improved cleanliness, more toilet coverage which has contributed to a better healthcare system. He further listed the efforts of the Government in ensuring disease reduction and bringing better healthcare to the villages like providing piped drinking water to every household, setting up medical colleges in rural areas and running the world’s largest health insurance scheme, according to a PIB release.