Davos address: Many more Covid-19 vaccines to come out of India, says PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India will soon make available many more Covid-19 vaccines, on top of the two Made-In-India jabs that have been rolled out, as he highlighted the country’s efforts in not just containing the pandemic at home but serving the world during this unprecedented crisis.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s virtual Davos Agenda Summit, Modi also called upon foreign investors to prepare themselves to take advantage of the rapid developments on India’s economic front, as he projected the country as a land of possibilities.

The country is rolling out projects worth $1.5 trillion over the next five years under the National Infrastructure Pipeline, he said, adding that its infrastructure requirement will widen to $4.5 trillion by 2040. The launch of production-linked incentive schemes will help catalyse manufacturing output worth $520 billion.

By 2025, as many as 25 cities in India will have access to metro rail services, he said, suggesting a massive expansion drive.

Addressing questions posed by top executives of several multinational corporations, the Prime Minister hard-sold his government’s several initiatives, including the corporate tax rate cut, faceless income-tax assessment, flexible labour laws, greater ease of doing business, decriminalisation of several provisions in the company law, to drive home the point that India is a land of possibilities.

Through the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, India intends to integrate deeper with the global supply chain and promises to continue to remain as a reliable player on this front.

Despite the pandemic, India’s foreign direct investment inflows grew 13%, the highest expansion among major economies, in 2020, he stressed, when global inflows crashed by 42%. Similarly, despite initial gloomy projections by some on the pandemic’s potential impact on India, the country emerged stronger from the crisis.

“Some had talked about 70-80 crore people expected to get infected in India, while some talked about over 20 lakh possible deaths but India did not let the disappointment get better of it,” he said. “We transformed fight against coronavirus into a people’s movement and today India is among the most successful countries in saving lives,” he added.

Modi highlighted that India has now initiated the world’s largest coronavirus vaccination programme. Its speed can be gauged from the fact that over 23 lakh health workers and frontline warriors have been vaccinated in just 12 days, he added.

The country has also ensured that it follows its global responsibility by sending essential medicines to over 150 countries, the Prime Minister said. Even Covid-19 vaccines are also being sent to some countries. Using the crisis as an opportunity, India stepped up manufacturing of masks and PPE kits on a large scale and truned from an importer to an exporter of these products with in a few months, he stressed.