The Global Conclave was jointly organised by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and National Health Authority (NHA) with an objective to extend the CoWIN platform as a digital public good to the world
Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday addressed the CoWIN Global Conclave as India presented the CoWIN platform to the world at the virtual global meet of representatives from 142 countries.
Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare chaired the inaugural session organised to share India’s learnings and experiences with regards to planning, strategising and executing the world’s largest vaccination drive through CoWIN.
The Global Conclave was jointly organised by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and National Health Authority (NHA) with an objective to extend the CoWIN platform as a digital public good to the world.
Expressing his delight at interest shown by countries from across the globe for the CoWIN platform, the Prime Minister said, “India has been committed to sharing all our experiences, expertise and resources with the global community in this battle. Despite all our constraints, we have tried to share as much as possible with the world. Further, we remain eager to learn from global practices. Technology is integral to our fight against COVID-19. Luckily, software is one area in which there are no resource constraints.”
Speaking on the digital backbone provided by CoWIN to the COVID-19 vaccination exercise, he said that such a digital approach is essential if the post-pandemic world has to return to normalcy in today’s globalised world.
“The Indian Civilisation considers the whole world as one family. This pandemic has made many people realise the fundamental truth of this philosophy. Guided by the approach of ‘One Earth, One Health,’ humanity will certainly overcome this pandemic,” he added.
Addressing the conclave, Dr Harsh Vardhan said, “What we have developed is a robust, inclusive and scalable system that can prevent rent-seeking, black marketing and other malpractices. The CoWIN platform can be scaled up as per requirements.”
He also said that in a country of more than 1.3 billion people, CoWIN ensured the mammoth challenge of ensuring fair and equitable distribution of the vaccines as well as their last-mile delivery, removing information asymmetry and aligning stakeholders.
He also reminded everyone that apart from ensuring ease of use while offering multi-lingual access, CoWIN enabled continuous tracking of Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI) to not only respond to help such citizens to overcome adverse events, but to also generate data for policymaking.
Informing about the advantages of CoWIN, Dr RS Sharma, Chairman of Empowered Group on Technology and Data Management to combat COVID-19, and CEO, National Health Authority (NHA), said, “CoWIN platform is the first-of-its-kind software in the world developed by leading IT experts in India to implement the world’s largest immunisation campaign against COVID-19. It has enabled a transparent system to monitor each dose of vaccine supplied to vaccination facilities and recording the fulfillment of demand at a grass-root level. CoWIN, being a dynamic platform, can accommodate any modifications.”
Lauding the achievements of CoWIN, he noted, “Since its roll out, the CoWIN platform has already become the fastest-growing tech platform in the world by getting over 36.50 crore registered users through a network of 1,38,427 COVID-19 vaccination centres.”
Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) acknowledged the CoWIN platform as a technology backbone, enabler and force-multiplier. He said, “As in the tradition of India, it is an open platform available for sharing as a public good. The platform can be adapted and scaled up for health interventions throughout the globe. We would like to share our experience with partner nations.”
Talking about harmonising human efforts with digital technologies, Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary, said, “At the start of the pandemic, all the states/Union Territories (UTs) established robust protocols for surveillance, prevention, detection and management of COVID-19. A massive network of more than 10 lakh frontline healthcare workers was mobilised to undertake micro-level testing and tracing strategies. We harnessed the power of digital technologies to integrate and scale up these efforts.”
He also elaborated how other IT initiatives like the Arogya Setu mobile app for tracing and tracking COVID suspect individuals, COVID India portal at the ministry for real-time monitoring of cases in India, and e-Sanjivani app for telemedicine service, have complemented the physical network of healthcare facilities.
His Excellency Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Minister of State for ICT, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Her Excellency Lyonpo Dechen Wangmo, Health Minister, Government of Bhutan; His Excellency Dr Ahmed Robleh Abdilleh, Minister of Health, Government of Djibouti; His Excellency Dr Frank C Anthony, Minister of Health, Government of Guyana; His Excellency Dr Shah Mahir, Minister of State for Health, Government of Maldives and His Excellency Dr Wahid Majrooh, Minister for Public Health, Government of Afghanistan were among the participants.