India has administered 350 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, said PM Modi
New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday offered CoWIN, India’s technological platform spearheading its COVID-19 vaccination drive, as a “digital public good” to the world, asserting that it has been committed to sharing its expertise and resources with the global community in combating the pandemic.
Addressing the CoWIN Global Conclave via video conference, he said the platform is being made open source so that it is available to all countries.
He said vaccination is the best hope for humanity to emerge from the pandemic successfully and noted that India decided to adopt a completely digital approach for the exercise.
This helps people in proving that they have been vaccinated, expediting the normalcy in the post-pandemic globalised world as they will not have to carry fragile pieces of paper, he said, adding that a safe, secure and trustworthy proof helps people to establish their vaccination.
Modi said experience shows that no nation, no matter how powerful and prosperous, can solve a challenge like this pandemic in isolation.
“Right from the beginning of the pandemic, India has been committed to sharing all our experiences, expertise and resources with the global community in this battle,” the Prime Minister said.
“Despite all our constraints, we have tried to share as much as possible with the world,” he said, adding that the biggest lesson from the pandemic is that for humanity and the human cause, all nations have to work together and move ahead together.
“We have to learn from each other and guide each other about our best practices,” he said.
Noting that technology is integral to India’s fight against COVID-19, Modi said luckily, software is one area in which there are no resource constraints.
“That’s why we made our COVID tracing and tracking App open source as soon as it was technically feasible,” he said.
Indian civilization considers the whole world as one family and this pandemic has made many people realise the fundamental truth of this philosophy, he said.
“That’s why, our technology platform for COVID vaccination – the platform we call CoWIN- is being prepared to be made open source so (that) it will be available in any and all countries,” Modi said.
About 50 countries, including Canada, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama and Uganda, have shown interest in adopting CoWIN to run their vaccination drives, Dr R S Sharma, the CEO of the National Health Authority (NHA), had said recently, adding that India is ready to share the open-source software for free.
In his address, Modi noted that India has administered 350 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including nine million people being administered in one day a few days ago.
The digital approach also helps in tracking the usage of vaccination and minimises wastage, he said.
With nearly 200 million users, the ”Aarogya Setu” app is a readily available package for developers, he added.
Highlighting CoWIN’s adaptability, he said its software can be customised as per the local requirements of the interested countries, and expressed confidence that the world will prevail over the pandemic with the approach of “One Earth, One Health”.
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