‘Harness private sector capability to scale up Covid vaccine distribution’

Hemai Sheth Updated - February 16, 2021 at 03:43 PM.

“Widespread vaccination is our main hope against any new waves which are now a serious threat,” tweeted Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra

( from left ) Shiv Nadar, Founder, HCL Technologies ; Anand Mahindra, CMD , Mahindra Group; and Michael Boneham, Former President , Ford India, at the inaugural session of Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet 2015, in Chennai on Wednesday ( September 9, 2015) Photo : Bijoy Ghosh To go with R. Balaji's report

India needs to scale up distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine rapidly leveraging the private sector capability, according to Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra.

Mahindra, responding to a data report by the India Today Group on global Covid-19 vaccination numbers, said that widespread vaccination was India’s “main hope”.

“We have the production capability. We need to harness the private sector’s capability to scale up distribution rapidly. Widespread vaccination is our main hope against any new waves which are now a serious threat. @drharshvardhan,” tweeted Mahindra.

Mahindra has emphasised increasing vaccine distribution capacity in the country on multiple occasions.

Earlier this month, hehad cited a New York Times article on the United States beginning its programme to distribute vaccines directly to drugstores and grocery stores.

“We have the largest potential supply of vaccines in the world. We now need to dramatically expand distribution throughout India using both pvt. & public sector channels. When we do that, we will be a role model in terms of the scale of vaccinations,” Mahindra had tweeted with the report.

The total number of people vaccinated in India as of February 15 stood at 85,16,771, with 2,31,476 people getting vaccinated on Monday, as per official data.

Published on February 16, 2021 09:49