Budget 2021: Serum Institute’s Adar Poonawalla praised the Union Budget
New Delhi:
The owners of India’s two top vaccine-makers have praised the Union Budget as a right step in the direction towards better healthcare amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today announced Rs 35,000 crore to be deployed in India’s vaccination drive, the world’s largest.
“Great #Budget2021 announcements, @nsitharaman Ji, especially on healthcare and vaccines; this is the best investment any country can make. A healthier India is a more productive India,” Institute of India CEO and owner Adar Poonawalla tweeted.
Great #Budget2021 announcements, @nsitharaman Ji, especially on healthcare and vaccines; this is the best investment any country can make. A healthier India is a more productive India.
— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) February 1, 2021
Mr Poonawalla’s company is manufacturing Covishield, developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, and was cleared for use in India last month along with Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
“It’s a great step ahead, and far-reaching budget announcement, providing Rs 35,000 crore for COVID-19 vaccination… The Rs 64,180 crore spending plan for healthcare over the next six years to be spent on primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare, in addition to the National Health Mission is also a welcome move,” Bharat Biotech chairman and managing director Dr Krishna Ella said in a statement.
Bharat Biotech joint managing director Suchitra Ella said the new health infrastructure schemes with significantly higher outlay of Rs 35,000 crore for the vaccination drive is a “huge fiscal medicine to contain the pandemic, reduce disease burden for the population, and the economy.”
India currently spends about 1 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) on health, among the lowest for any major economy. Ms Sitharaman proposed increasing healthcare spending to Rs 2.2 lakh crore to help improve public health systems and fund the huge vaccination drive in the country where COVID-19 cases is next to the US, which has the highest cases.
“The investment on health infrastructure in this budget has increased substantially,” Ms Sitharaman said as MPs thumped their desks in approval. Overall, the government set capital expenditure for fiscal 2022 at Rs 5.54 lakh crore, 35 per cent more than the previous year’s budget estimate.
Millions lost their jobs when the government ordered a lockdown last year to combat the coronavirus. Unlike other countries, India refrained from announcing a big stimulus, offering greater liquidity to firms instead, and holding off the fiscal firepower until curbs to contain the virus were lifted.
Over 37.5 lakh healthcare workers and those linked directly to fighting the pandemic have been vaccinated till today. Uttar Pradesh accounts for the maximum share of vaccinated beneficiaries, followed by Rajasthan and Karnataka, government data shows.
With inputs from Reuters