GHANSHYAM J PATEL | The ubiquity of coronavirus outbreak has put the whole world in precarious situation and during these challenging times, Indian government has become the symbol of benevolence resilience and hope. “Given the scale of the challenge and the danger to human lives – the WHO has described it as the defining global health crisis of our time – the efforts of the Indian government under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been applauded widely.” During this pandemic India showed extraordinary leadership in this South Asia region as well as at the international level.
Leading South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (“SAARC”)
India during these difficult times lead the SAARC group under the leadership of Prime Minister (“PM”) Narendra Modi who adumbrated a robust strategy to fight Coronavirus pandemic. The SAARC is strategic group of eight nations consisting of India, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, the republic of Maldives, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. For better collaboration and support, PM Modi proposed formation of a “Covid-19 Emergency Fund” and government of India also made an initial contribution of 10 million US dollars.
All SAARC countries can voluntarily contribute to the fund and this fund can be utilised by any member nation to meet the urgent expenses. Moreover, India is also forming “a rapid response team of doctors and specialists, along with testing kits and other equipment.” The Indian government is also willing to facilitate training to the emergency response teams of the neighbouring countries by providing online training capsules.
Operation Sanjeevani
The one of the SAARC country, Maldives had already received immense help from India. The Indian government generously supplied around 6.2 tonnes of vital medicines to the republic of Maldives, under “Operation Sanjeevani” in their battle against coronavirus. Our Indian Air force with help of “Hercules C-130J-30” delivered these crucial medicines which included lopinavir, ritonavir, influenza vaccines, antiviral drugs, hydroxychloroquine. Indian government also supplied consumables such as nebulisers, urine bags, catheters, infant feeding tubes etc.
In March this year, Indian government under this operation also send a 14 members medical team to set up a testing lab. All these medicines were lifted from airports in Mumbai, New Delhi, Madurai and Chennai before flying to Maldives. India also provided Maldives with vital food grains and edibles despite umpteen difficulties in wake of lockdown.
Export of food grains
As developing countries are facing food crisis because of Covid-19, Indian government came forward to export wheat to Afghanistan, Lebanon and other countries. Indian government will supply 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan and 40,000 tonnes of the grains to Lebanon which we could have amass for ourselves. The above-mentioned quantities are just initial help which in future will be increased if crisis persists.
Export of pharmaceuticals to other countries
The export of medicines during this crisis is entirely proscribed to prevent any shortage within our country if pandemic continues and also there is global rush to acquire it. India is also known as “the pharmacy of the world” listened to requests of many countries and exported various medicines on humanitarian grounds. Indian government has already exported hydroxychloroquine tablets to more than fifty-five countries like the United States of America, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Seychelles, Bhutan, Mauritius, Dominican Republic etc.
The US president praised this move, “Extraordinary times require even closer cooperation between friends. Thank you, India and the Indian people, for the decision on hydroxychloroquine. Will not be forgotten! Thank you, Prime Minister for your strong leadership in helping not just India, but humanity, in this fight!”. The reason behind this huge demand for hydroxychloroquine is that it is very potent anti-malarial drug and several studies revealed that it is also beneficial for the treatment of novel coronavirus disease. All these positive steps will help India to increase its soft power, earn goodwill and earn honour from all many countries. India even on humanitarian grounds decided to export life saving drugs to Pakistan, who till now had banned the all types of imports from India after the Balakot airstrikes.
The PM CARES Fund
On 28th of March 2020, the “Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund)” was formed to combat and contain the coronavirus outbreak. This fund will streamline relief efforts and it also allows small donations starting with ₹10. The fund will not only be utilised for fighting against coronavirus outbreak but it will be further helpful in disaster management and research. The PM will be the chairman of the fund and members will include ministers from defence, finance and home ministries. The fund is very pivotal as it also encompasses the people’s contributions against this ordeal.
Evacuation of Indian citizens and other nationals from coronavirus affected countries
The Indian government evacuated its citizens and nationals of other countries from the Wuhan city where the virus originated. More than 900 passengers have been already evacuated from umpteen affected countries and out of these more than 50 people belonging to different countries including Myanmar, Peru, Maldives, Bangladesh, US, China, Madagascar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and South Africa. The government not only evacuated these people but also placed them in the isolation facilities for 14 days. They were also tested twice before releasing them.
The coronavirus relief package of 22.5 billion US dollar (approx. Rs. 1.70 lakh crore)
The finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced 1.70 lakh crore relief package under the aegis of “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana” to support poor in their fight against Covid-19. While announcing this scheme Sitharaman said that “These measures are intended at reaching out to the poorest of the poor, with food and money in hands, so that they do not face difficulties in buying essential supplies and meeting essential needs.” This scheme also provides for a medical insurance of 50 lakhs rupees for health workers which includes ASHA workers, doctors, nurses, specialists and other health workers. Around 2.2 million health workers will be covered under this scheme. The government is also ensuring proper availability of food grains to all and around 80 crore individuals will get benefit from this scheme.
The expedition of payment of the first instalment under “PM KISAN Yojana” will directly benefit around 9 crore farmers. The increase of wages under the MNREGA scheme, direct cash transfers, supporting senior citizens and differently abled people are now became government’s top priorities under this scheme.
The issue of testing and allowing entry of private labs
Many naysayers are criticising government for a low level of testing as compared to several other countries but they are oblivious to low death rate per one million people in India as compared to other countries like US, UK, Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland etc. “The Indian Council of Medical Research’s director general, Balram Bhargava said that India has the capacity to do more than 70 thousand tests in a week” and in order to achieve it government allowed private labs to conduct tests with caps cost at 4500 rupees. These private labs have to strictly adhere to some pivotal guidelines while doing tests and only those having “NABL accreditation for real time PCR SA for RNA virus” will be permitted to conduct tests.
Rise of default threshold under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code
Many corporates during this coronavirus outbreak are under lockdown and thus in order to thwart unnecessary triggering of Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process, government had increased the default threshold from 1 lakh to 1 crore by way of notification. This is very remarkable step to safeguard the interest of MSMEs and small businesses. This measure will give significant room to businesses to first stabilise their business operations without worrying about initiation of insolvency proceedings.
Some lacunas
India is very large country and population of more than 1.4 billion. So, it becomes extremely difficult to manage everything with utmost perfection. The government took so long to cancel all international flights in the country and even after banning international flights, domestic flights continue to operate. The financial relief package of 22.5 billion dollars is not adequate when compared to others countries like United States of America (“USA”) which announced relief package of 5 trillion dollars. The government’s blatant indifference towards the plight of migrant workers is also a matter of grave concern. Another concern is related to scale of testing which is comparatively low during the initial days of outbreak. The government is now acting on each of these lacunas to ensure welfare of its citizens.
Concluding remarks
The coronavirus pandemic has engulfed the umpteen countries. Every country is facing serious challenges in terms of economic and health security of crores of people. Developed countries like United States, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Switzerland etc. are abysmally suffering and have already failed to great extent in containing Covid-19. The United Nation’s chief Antino Guterres accoladed India for its global coronavirus corporation.
Apart from global corporation, the government also tried to focus exclusively on the homefront. The union-states corporation has also significantly helped India in its fight against Covid-19. The monitoring at the PMO level and well-coordinated action plans such as prompt establishment of isolation and quarantine facilities, preliminary screening, cautious airport checking etc. significantly helped in containing of Covid-19. The guiding principle of the Indian government during this pandemic is “the prevention is better than cure.” The several measures like lockdown, social distancing, imposing of Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure etc. have a significant economic cost but this time government focus more on saving human lives and ensuring the welfare of all citizens. All these measures helped in preventing community spread of Covid-19. The effectiveness of these measures is substantiated by the point that the India’s population is nearly four times that of the USA while the number of positive cases of Covid-19 in India is comparatively very less than that of the USA. India is well-positioned to counter this pandemic and it is imperative that each citizen cooperate with the government.
Ghanshyam J Patel is an undergraduate student of Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar. He can be reached at ghanshyam22801@gmail.com
Photo Source: The Economist
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