'World's biggest COVID-19 vaccination drive set to begin in India,' says PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday stated that the world's biggest vaccination drive against COVID-19 is set to begin in India. The Prime Minister said this while virtually addressing the crowd at the inauguration of National Atomic Timescale and Bhartiya Nirdeshak Dravya at the National Metrology Conclave. These remarks come a day after drug regulators approved two COVID-19 vaccines - Covishield and Covaxin for restricted emergency use.

PM Modi lauded the efforts of the scientist and technicians for the "Made in India" vaccines. He added that the country is proud of these people. The Covishield vaccine has been developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca but is being produced in India by Serum Institute of India while the Covaxin vaccine has been indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech.

"World's biggest COVID-19 vaccination programme set to begin in India. For this, the country is proud of the contributions of its scientists and technicians," the Prime Minister said. "Today is also the day to remember the time when our scientific institutions, all of you, worked day and night together to develop the vaccine to defeat Covid," he added.

The PM stated that CSIR and other institutions collaborated to face every challenge and to find solutions for new problems. "With your support, awareness has been raised about these science institutes in the country today," he said.

"Today, India is among the top 50 countries in global innovation ranking. The collaboration between industry and institutions is being strengthened in India," Prime Minister Modi added

Taking further about 'Make in India', PM Modi said, "We have to ensure that there is not only global demand but also global acceptance of 'Make in India' products. We have to strengthen brand India on the basis of quality and credibility".

National Metrology Conclave 2021 is being conducted by the Council of scientific and industrial research-national physical laboratory (CSIR-NPL), New Delhi. This commemorates the 75th anniversary of the organisation's establishment.

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