NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday urged developed nations to share vaccine technology and said that there cannot be any vaccine nationalism. The Union Minister's statement while speaking at the annual meet of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) comes as India is facing a vaccine shortage amid growing Covid-19 cases.
She also pitched for examining Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement in the light of the coronavirus pandemic. "Countries will have to be open about sharing vaccine-based technologies. The TRIPS agreement will have to be looked at in the context of the pandemic. There cannot be any more vaccine nationalism, countries will have to be flexible about it," she said.
The TRIPS agreement is a legal pact between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It establishes minimum standards for regulation by national governments of different forms of intellectual property as applied to nationals of other WTO member nations. The agreement has been in force from January 1995.
Participating in a virtual seminar, Sitharaman said there is a need to have a global multilateral approach to deal with the Covid pandemic. Post-pandemic, she said, "the future... will have to be based on principles of openness, transparency, fairness, sustainability and inclusiveness". The FM also said that information on tools for fighting Covid-19 diagnostic, therapeutic, vaccines, or technology should be shared internationally. Sitharaman stressed on enabling India’s access to critical raw materials essential for ramping up India’s vaccine manufacturing capacity.
Talking about the government's efforts to keep the wheels of the economy running, Sitharaman said that it has extended financial assistance to various sectors. Calling MSMEs the backbone of the economy, she noted that the government has extended financial assistance via a `3 lakh crore loan guarantee. The finance ministry on Monday also waived Integrated GST (IGST) till June 30 on the import of Covid-related relief material donated or received free.