Central India’s Global Initiative for COVID-19 Response

India is currently in discussions with the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to share its CoWIN platform globally as part of an initiative led by WHO. This information was relayed by Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla during a meeting on Covid-19 hosted by the United States.

CoWIN is a digital technology platform in India that is used for vaccination efforts.

During the meeting on Monday, organized by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Shringla mentioned that India is willing to expand the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium network of laboratories for genomic sequencing and surveillance in neighboring countries. Additionally, he expressed India’s readiness to share its expertise in testing, treatment, and vaccination strategies with frontline and healthcare workers in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Shringla also highlighted that India is producing four WHO-approved vaccines – , Covishield, Covovax, and Janssen – and three others awaiting approval – , ZyCov-D, and Gennova. The country has the capacity to produce 5 billion doses in 2022.

Blinken hosted the Covid-19 Global Action Meeting to coordinate efforts in pandemic response, with a focus on vaccination, supply chain resilience, and global health security. Shringla mentioned that India has offered CoWIN as an open-source digital public good and is in discussions with WHO to share the platform globally through WHO’s C-TAP initiative.

India has provided over 162 million vaccine doses to 97 countries and two UN organizations. Shringla also highlighted India’s collaboration with Quad partners to deliver a billion doses in the Indo-Pacific region in 2022.

The meeting, attended by foreign ministers and senior representatives from various countries and international organizations, saw Shringla representing India in the absence of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Shringla emphasized India’s efforts to strengthen and secure global supply chains and improve approval and regulatory processes to ensure stable and predictable supplies.

India is dedicated to playing a constructive role in ending the pandemic and will continue to develop and share ideas for the next steps in the near future.