Praising India's response in the fight against the novel coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday said India has developed two coronavirus vaccines so far which have been exported to over 150 countries and the world would see many more Made in India vaccines in the coming days.
Addressing the World Economic Forum's online Davos Agenda Summit, PM Modi said India has beaten all odds to battle the pandemic. "When Covid-19 arrived, India had its share of problems. At the beginning of last year, several experts and organizations had made several predictions that India would be most affected by the pandemic. Someone had even said that 700-800 million would be infected and someone had said that over two million Indians would die from the pandemic. Looking at the condition of countries with better health infrastructure, the world was right in worrying about us," he said.
"India, however, took a proactive public participation approach and developed a Covid-specific health infrastructure and trained its resources to fight Covid," the PM added.
PM Modi said that India, which is the home to the world's 18 per cent population, has not only taken care of its citizens but also helped other countries by exporting PPE kits and masks.
The PM said India has started the world's largest vaccination drive where it inoculated more than 2.3 million healthcare workers in just 12 days. "In next some months, we will achieve our target of vaccinating 300 million elderly people and people with comorbidities," the PM said.
The prime minister said India guided the world how traditional medicine (Ayurveda) could help in improving immunity. "Today, India is sending its vaccine to several countries and is helping in developing the infrastructure for successful vaccination, thus saving lives of citizens of other countries," PM Modi said.
"India's upcoming vaccines will help other countries at a swifter pace to fight the pandemic," he added.
On the economic front, the PM said that even during the coronavirus induced lockdowns, India continued its economic activities and created employment opportunities through infrastructure projects worth trillions of rupees.
(With inputs from agencies)