Prime Minister Narendra Modi will speak at the CoWIN Global Conclave on Monday, as India will make the CoWIN platform available to other countries as a digital public good for them to run their own Covid-19 vaccination campaigns.
Dr R S Sharma, the CEO of the National Health Authority (NHA), recently stated that about 50 countries, including Canada, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama, and Uganda, have expressed interest in using CoWIN, a digital platform, to run their vaccination drives, and that India is willing to share the open-source software for free.
PM Modi has directed officials to create an open-source version of the platform and give it to any country that wants it for free.
“We are elated to announce that Hon’ble PM @narendramodi would be sharing his thoughts on #CoWINGlobalConclave as India offers #CoWIN as a digital public good to the world to combat #COVID19,” the NHA has said in a tweet.
The virtual conclave will be inaugurated by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan. Foreign Secretary H V Shringla, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, and Sharma are among those expected to speak at the event.
The virtual meeting will begin at 3 p.m. and will bring together health and technology experts from around the world. The NHA said in a statement on its website that the conclave aims to share India’s experience with universal vaccination to combat Covid-19 through Co-WIN.
Covid vaccination was developed in India as the central information technology (IT) system for planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating the vaccine. According to the NHA, many countries have recently expressed interest in using the platform. “India is ecstatic to join hands with the rest of the world to defeat Covi-19 with Co-WIN.
“Join us as we tell the storey of how a scalable, inclusive, and open platform called CoWIN, the tech backbone of India’s vaccination campaign, came to be,” it continued.
