India saved at least 3.4 million lives by undertaking a nationwide Covid-19 vaccination campaign at an unprecedented scale, said a new report released by the Union health minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, on Friday, adding that the vaccination campaign also yielded a positive economic impact by preventing a loss of $18.3 billion.
The vaccination drive also resulted in a net benefit of $15.42 billion (after taking into consideration the cost of the vaccination campaign).
India started its Covid vaccination drive on January 16, 2021, and covered at least 90% of the country’s population with at least dose within a year, making it one of the largest and successfully vaccination campaigns against Covid globally.
India is home to about 17% of the world’s population.
The paper— Healing the Economy: Estimating the Economic Impact of India’s Vaccination and Related Measures— is authored by Richard Dasher, director, US-Asia Technology Management Centre at Stanford University, and Amit Kapoor, honorary chairman, Institute for Competitiveness India and lecturer at Stanford University.
“India systematically tackled Covid-19 using a strategy based on three cornerstones—Containment, Vaccination, and a comprehensive yet targeted Relief Package. The uniqueness of each of the three approaches is in the manner in which they were implemented. The calibrated approach used by India in formulating a relief package, as opposed to a front-loaded stimulus package, played a major role in bringing a resilient post-pandemic trajectory,” wrote the authors.
The paper was released during a two-day conference— The India Dialog— at Stanford University.
According to the paper, a spend of $280 billion (as per IMF) through direct and indirect funding also had a positive impact on the economy.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, free food grains were distributed to 800 million people, which, according to the authors, resulted in an economic impact of approximately $ 26.24 billion. Under PM Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan, 4 million beneficiaries were provided employment which resulted in an overall economic impact of US$ 4.81 billion.
“India under the leadership of honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji adopted a ‘Whole of Government’ and ‘Whole of Society’ approach in a proactive, preemptive and graded manner, thus adopting a holistic response strategy for effective management of Covid-19,” said Mandaviya while delivering the keynote address virtually in the conference.
“… a constant coordination among stakeholders at the centre, state, and district levels, was observed which not only helped mitigating the adverse effects of COVID-19 but also provided an impetus to the economic activities. The relief package by the government catered to the welfare needs of the vulnerable groups, old age population, farmers, MSMEs, women entrepreneurs amongst others and also ensuring support for their livelihoods,” added the health minister.
