As the US government steps up assistance to India in its battle against a deadly wave of the COVID-19, an Indian public healthcare expert has pointed out the tremendous scope for India-US cooperation in the sectors of health technology and pharmaceuticals.
‘After we emerge out of the crisis, two areas where there is tremendous scope for cooperation between India and the US are health technology and pharmaceuticals,’ Indian civil servant Dr Mrinalini Darswal, currently pursuing doctoral studies in public health with focus on COVID-19 at Harvard University, told PTI.
A 2002-batch Odisha-cadre IAS officer, Darswal said India has proved its competence in the health sector, especially in speed of innovation, manufacture, and cost-effectiveness.
It is beneficial to the US to utilise India’s technical competence and installed capacity in drug manufacturing to source health equipment, drugs, personal protective equipment, and vaccines at competitive rates even now, she said.
‘This shall also lower US dependence on China, which has proved a treacherous partner, besides being non-repentant of its hiding of the origin of COVID-19 and consequently throwing the planet in the current predicament,’ Darswal said.
Observing that globalisation and interconnectedness hastened the spread of the coronavirus in a matter of weeks in November 2019, Darswal said the same forces of interdependence and mutuality would help the world tide over the crisis. “The USA and India -- the largest democracies in the world -- are capable of setting the path to the normal for the entire planet,” Darswal said.