Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare addressed the DST-CII India Portugal Technology Summit 2020, a flagship event with Portugal as a partner country. He said, “In India, about 30 vaccines are in different stages of development. Two of them are in the most advanced stage of development - COVAXIN developed through ICMR-Bharat Biotech collaboration and COVISHIELD from the Serum Institute of India. Both are in the Phase-III clinical trial stage. Our premier institution – the Indian Council of Medical Research-is involved in their trial executions. India is also hosting clinical trials for all the major vaccine contenders. Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, is conducting trials for the vaccine developed by Oxford University. Zydus Cadila is also conducting Ph2 trial of an indigenous DNA Vaccine. One of our pharma giants, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, will distribute the Russian vaccine in India after conducting final-stage human trials and receiving regulatory approval”.

 

It was highlighted by Dr. Vardhan that India is among the top ten countries in the world with respect to number of patents filed and highlighting India’s efforts to fight the challenge of COVID, he said “More than 100 start-ups supported by the Government have provided innovative products and solutions to overcome challenges posed by Covid-19”.

Recently, the active caseload of India has shrunk considerably and presently is below 4 lakhs. At present India’s active caseload is just 4.1% of Total Positive Cases. This is the lowest after 140 days and the recovery rate has also seen a boost.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan stated, “The Summit is a reflection of the effective partnership between the Government and industry for developing a robust technology ecosystem for the country. The next iteration of this collaboration will be to encourage new solutions based on cutting edge technologies such as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence”. 

Manuel Heitor, Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Government of Portugal, who was also the Guest of Honour delivered the Keynote Address. He said, “These are times of solidarity. Our ties with India are strong. We need to rely on knowledge to be out of this crisis together”.

Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, said that over the years the summit facilitated co-creation of knowledge, two-way technology transfer, collaborative R&D projects and enhanced market access between India and the partner country’s industry and research institutes.  He also added that by the gradually increasing focus of its policy regime, an impetus that has been ably supported by the years of economic reforms and landmark initiatives, the S&T ecosystem has blossomed in India. 

The Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India has been co-organizing the Technology Summit in partnership with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). By forging collaborations with global partners, including policy making that has triggered private sector’s investment in R&D and technology significantly, the summit has benefitted the Indian industry and academic & research institutions. Spain, South Korea, UK and Italy are some countries to have also participated  in the past summits.

Dr. V K Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog, Government of India;   Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII);  Alok Nanda, Co-chairman, CII National Committee on R&D & Innovation and CTO, GE South Asia & CEO, GE India Technology Centre; Vipin Sondhi, Chairman, CII National Committee on R&D & Innovation and Chairman, Technology Summit and CEO and MD, Ashok Leyland; Helena Pereira, President, Board of Directors, FCT also addressed the inaugural session today. Dr. Sanjeev K Varshney, Head, International Cooperation, DST, GoI gave the closing remarks at the inaugural of the Summit.