India to strengthen R&D, industrial ecosystem to prepare for future pandemic: Jitendra Singh. Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology said this while discussing NITI Aayog’s report on “future pandemic preparedness” The report outlines the action pathways to deploy medical countermeasures within 100 days of any future Pandemic outbreak. It was noted how India administered more than 220 crore doses of vaccines that were indigenously developed to its citizens during the recent Covid-19 pandemic. Drugs made in India were exported across the world. Nearly 250 made-in-India Covid diagnostic tests were approved. All this demonstrates our strong scientific-industrial potential, Singh said. He attributed these to “the coordinated and collective effort across the departments with a whole of government approach”. He also discussed how to mobilise the research and development team and infrastructure along with the industry to work on potential pathogens and prototype vaccines in a strategic, scientific, and proactive way across departments and other stakeholders.