India Helping To Address Issue Of Vaccine Equity: Top UN Women Official

India has provided 56 lakh doses of Covid vaccines under grants assistance to a number of countries.

Lauding India for its vaccine leadership, a top UN Women official has said the country was directly helping to address the issue of vaccine equity while rich nations were "cutting side deals" with pharmaceutical giants to buy more vaccines than they actually need.

India is called the pharmacy of the world during the COVID-19 pandemic with its vast experience and deep knowledge in medicine. The country is one of the world's biggest drug-makers and an increasing number of countries have already approached it for procuring coronavirus vaccines.

Praising India for its vaccine leadership, Assistant-Secretary-General & Deputy Executive Director of UN Women Anita Bhatia said India is directly helping to address the issue of vaccine equity at a time when the world deals with the crippling coronavirus pandemic and rich countries are "cutting side deals" with pharmaceutical companies to buy more vaccines than they actually need.