Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 5

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday offered India’s CoWIN platform to the world for adaptation to local use. Speaking at the global CoWIN conclave attended by health and technology experts from abroad, Modi said having been used in India, “you can be sure the software has been tested in the real world for speed and scale”.

The PM said while planning its vaccination strategy, India decided to adopt a completely digital approach. Given how precious each dose of vaccine is, each dose could be tracked and wastage minimised. This would not have been possible without an end-to-end digital approach.

The CoWIN global conclave was organised today to share the digital platform’s success story, which forms the technological backbone of India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive.

India has offered the platform, which can be adapted and scaled up for health interventions across the world, to partner countries as a global public good.

The platform is also being offered to the World Health Organisation’s Covid Technology Access Pool (C-TAP).

Over 400 delegates from 140 countries and other organisations attended the conclave.

Of the five ministers from other countries who spoke, Bangladesh’s Zunaid Ahmed Palak revealed that his country has a similar app while those from smaller countries — Bhutan, Maldives, Afghanistan and Guyana — looked forward to replicating the Indian experience. Interest has already been shown by Vietnam, Lao PDR, Cyprus, Croatia, Sierra Leone, Zambia and Malawi.