India will make more home-grown coronavirus vaccines available, Modi tells World Economic Forum
- So far only two made-in-India jabs have been introduced, but in the future many more vaccines will be made available, the prime minister said
- India has been carrying out reforms to improve its economy, he told a virtual meeting with world leaders
Modi also said India will issue health identity cards to 1.3 billion citizens. The South Asian nation, one of the world’s biggest makers of medicines, is producing two vaccines – Covishield, licensed from Oxford University and AstraZeneca, and Covaxin, developed at home by Bharat Biotech in partnership with Indian Council of Medical Research.
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Indian firm Zydus Cadila is also developing an indigenous DNA-based vaccine, ZyCov-D at its facility in the western city of Ahmedabad.
Modi said India has taken steps to overcome the shock posed by the spread of Covid-19 and has been carrying out reforms to improve its economy.
India’s economy, Asia’s third largest, is expected to contract 7.7 per cent in the current financial year ending in March, the worst performance in four decades as a virus-related lockdown hit the economic and industrial activity.