“India. adopted a Whole of Government’ & ‘Whole of Society’ approach, in a proactive, preemptive & graded manner; thus, adopting a holistic response strategy, for effective management of COVID-19,” Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya said on February 24 as he virtually addressed the ‘The India Dialog’ session on the Economic Impact of Vaccination and Related Matters.
The Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare on Friday released a working paper by Stanford University and the Institute for Competitiveness “ Healing the Economy: Estimating Economic Impact of Vaccination & related measures”. The working paper was authored by Dr. Amit Kapoor, a lecturer at Stanford University, and Dr. Richard Dasher, Director of the US-Asia Technology Management Centre, Stanford University.
The Stanford paper, which discusses the role of containment measures in preventing the spread of the virus, highlighted that India was able to save more than 3.4 million lives by undertaking the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign at an unprecedented scale.
India began its vaccination drive in January 2021, and as of December 2, 2022, India had administered over 2 billion doses overall including first, second and booster shots.
The working paper noted that while the focus was on saving lives, India’s vaccination campaign also resulted in an overall positive economic impact. The campaign prevented a loss of $18.3 billion, and in total, a net benefit of $15.42 billion was recorded after accounting for the cost of the vaccination campaign.
Dr. Mandaviya further said that the “government focused on augmenting health infrastructure in terms of COVID-19 related beds, drugs, logistics i.e., N-95, PPE kits and medical oxygen, simultaneously up-skilling human resources through Centres of Excellences and deploying digital solutions such as eSanjeevani Telemedicine service, Aarogya Setu, COVID-19 India Portal etc.”
“The cumulative lifetime earnings of the lives saved through vaccination (in the working age group) tolled up to $ 21.5 billion”, highlighted the working paper. As per the Stanford University report, “the development of all these vaccines (COVAXIN & Covishield) helped fight the country the pernicious attack of the virus and not only inoculate a large number of people but also decrease the burden on healthcare system”.
The International Monetary Fund estimates India’s spending during COVID-19 to be around $280 billion through direct and indirect funding, all of which had a positive impact on the economy, the paper stated.
The relief package offered to citizens during COVID-19 not only subsided adverse effects, but also “provided an impetus to economic activities”, Dr. Mandaviya added. “With the help of schemes launched to support the MSME sector, 10.28 million MSMEs were provided assistance resulting in an economic impact of US$ 100.26 billion which comes out to be about 4.90% of the GDP”, he further added.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY), free food grains were distributed to 800 million people, which resulted in an economic impact of approximately $26.24 billion, according to the press release by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Moreover, under PM Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan, four million beneficiaries were provided employment which resulted in an overall economic impact of $4.81 billion.