India adopts people-centric approach, PM calls for reforms in WHO

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for reforms in World Health Organisation. Modi said, WHO must be reformed and strengthened to build a more resilient global health security architecture. Prime Minister was addressing the Second Global COVID Virtual Summit, which he attended at the invitation of US President Joe Biden on Thursday evening. Modi stressed that a coordinated global response is required to combat future health emergencies. He said, all the stakeholders must build a resilient global supply chain and enable equitable access to vaccines and medicines.
The Prime Minister said, India has adopted people-centric approach to COVID pandemic and made highest allocation towards annual healthcare budget. Modi said, India operationalized largest vaccination programme in the world wherein 90 per cent of adult populace is fully vaccinated and more than 50 million children have been administered COVID vaccines. Highlighting India's capability to tackle the pandemic, Prime Minister said, country has developed low-cost mitigation technologies for testing and treatment. He said, India manufactures four World Health Organization's approved vaccines and has supplied over 200 million doses to over 98 countries. He said, India will extend its capabilities to neighbouring countries in the future also.         
Pointing toward the importance of traditional medicine in the fight against COVID pandemic, Modi said, Indians extensively used the traditional medicines to boost immunity which resulted in saving countless lives. He said, recently, the government has laid the foundation of WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine at Jamnagar in Gujarat with an aim to make traditional medicinal knowledge available to the world. He called for a flexible WTO agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.