External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said in Mysuru on Sunday that the country’s response to COVID-19 was a demonstration of how the country could respond appropriately under stressful situations and its outreach helped earn global goodwill.
He was speaking in an interactive programme organised by Thinkers Forum in the city. Mr. Jaishankar said the pandemic tested the country’s abilities and the response proved that the country had the potential to not only look after its citizens both in India and abroad but stand up for the rest of the world and was a pointer to a civilisation state rising and reclaiming its place.
Mr. Jaishankar said at the beginning of 2020 the country was ill-prepared with respect to having adequate ventilators or manufacturing even masks but by the middle of 2020 India was exporting medicines to the rest of the world, said Mr. Jaishankar.
“We sent medicines to 150 out of 200 countries including many developed nations,” he added.
The real differentiator was the vaccines for COVID-19 and Mr. Jaishankar said that India was the world’s largest manufacturer of Astrazeneca which, he said, was a pointer to both the scale and efficiency with which it could be done in India. But the second vaccine Covaxin was not only made in India but was invented in India. What India did during the pandemic and the biggest plus point is the goodwill it helped early the country from the rest of the world, he added.
Referring to the just-concluded Operation Kaveri to rescue Indians stranded in Sudan engulfed by conflict, the External Affairs Minister said it was by far the most dangerous but India could pull it off due to its influence among different countries with strong links in Sudan and the forces fighting there. He said out of 4,000 Indians evacuated from Sudan about 10 to 12% were from Karnataka.
Operation Ganga in 2022 launched to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine which was invaded by Russia was another test of India’s capabilities of establishing systems and the country’s relationship with the rest of the world. This not only calls for coordination and putting up systems but requires motivation, he said and pointed out that during the pandemic, 70 lakh Indians were brought home from different countries.
“These exercises are a pointer to why building relationship with countries was important and mattered,” he added.
Mr. Jaishankar said looking back the country had made tremendous achievements in the last 75 years but one area which could have received more strength and support during that period was in the areas of agriculture, technology and manufacturing industry.
India’s economic reforms and digital delivery system have become the talk of the world, said Mr. Jaishankar as people are amazed at the pace of development and the scale as the targeted population tends to be the size of continents and not countries.
