Why Indian Private Sector Participation Could Speed Up Covid-19 Immunization Drive

Founding Chairman of Wipro Azim Premji has suggested to the center that it would be beneficial for the Indian government if they roped in the private sector into rolling the vaccination ball. 

India has taken on a humungous task of immunization for a population of more than 2 billion. They are intending to finish the task by September 2021. With the way technology glitches have been slowing the process of immunization country-wide, private participation would be a good thing.

According to Mr. Premji, private intervention could also help in bringing down costs of carrying out the overall immunization drive.   “If the government were to engage private industry quickly, we can be sure of achieving coverage of 500 million people within 60 days. I think it is very important that the government considers this as a major supplementation to the effort,” said Premji while speaking to the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in a closed-door budget discussion organized by the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce. 

This is being termed as a practical solution in such a large dissemination task. Earlier, experts had suggested that India should collect data as it has done before- conventional door-to-door visits. It is more reliable and a works better in low-lying areas of places where internet access is difficult.

Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra also feels that the private sector can provide its capabilities to scale up distribution rapidly. Most private-sector bigwigs are worried about the new wave and would want to contribute to a quick dissemination exercise. According to MD &CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank, Mr. Uday Kotak has said that “The faster we do it to get into the post-pandemic era, the better it is.”

India is one of the few countries that has taken up the huge challenge of carrying away a mass immunization drive in such a short span of time.