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India's jab project is a masterclass in scaling and self-belief and should serve as a role model for other developing nations. EPISODE #83
Dear Reader,
A very Happy Monday to you.
Last week India achieved a very important milestone in its fightback against the covid-19 pandemic: It logged 2 billion jabs.
This achievement is a terrific tribute to a country, which most experts believed did not possess the means or the mettle to undertake a task of such a scale, in short time and against daunting odds. On 17 July it told the world: “Yes we can!” If this record is impressive then the path to it is equally compelling.
So this week I explore India’s jab project and explain as to why this is a masterclass in scaling and self-belief. A story that should be told and retold. Do read and share your feedback.
In a departure from usual practice I opted for a graphic as this week’s cover picture.
I am happy to report that last week’s newsletter on internationalising of the Indian rupee drew a good response. Grateful and glad that it resonated with readers. A big shoutout to Niranjan, Vandana, Gautam, Premasundaran and Aashish for your informed responses, kind appreciation and amplification of last week’s column. Gratitude also to all those who responded on Twitter and Linkedin. Reader participation and amplification is key to growing this newsletter community. And, many thanks to readers who hit the like button😊.
YES WE CAN
On 17 July, India delivered its 200th crore vaccine. It was a very important milestone in the country’s jab story, which began among grave trepidation on 16 January 2021. Yes, it is a work in progress. Yet, two out of three Indians above 15 years of age are now fully vaccinated.
According to the Co-Win dashboard, as on 23 July, 1.02 billion Indians had received their first dose, while 929.7 million had been given their second dose; 71.3 million had been administered a precaution dose.
If you recall, the initial target group was 900 million, which was later expanded to include a section of the cohort below 18 years of age.
Effectively India has vaccinated three times the size of the population of the United States since January last year.
More importantly this accomplishment has been achieved using a domestically produced jab. This is a tribute to the country and its health personnel who braved inclement odds in fighting back against the covid-19 pandemic which had dodgy origins in Wuhan, China. Equally, it is a fitting riposte to the critics who claimed that India was merely making a tall boast.
For one, the vaccine, the only known first line of defence against covid-19, was in short supply. Worse, developed countries, true to form, had indulged in vaccine capture by pre-purchasing the jabs to be produced by a clutch of multinational pharmaceutical companies. The developing world was left to fend for themselves or tap into lesser options offered by China and Russia.
Second, India had to inoculate nearly one billion people. And all this in a country which is topographically so incredibly diverse, beset with developing country challenges and one where millions migrate regularly for jobs.
Third, its legacy of sell-past-the-date health infrastructure made the task of undertaking such a gigantic health project even more daunting. Not only had the jabs have to be delivered, the country had to provide emergency health care to the vulnerable co-morbid patients.
India evaded vaccine dependency on the West by backing domestic production of the Covishield vaccine developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and simultaneously also approved the indigenously developed Covaxin. And it leveraged the country’s growing prowess in technology to create a public digital architecture to seamlessly roll out the vaccine programme.
Looking back it is indeed a moment of pride that India managed the impossible. It is an inspiring story that should be told and retold.
Jab We Met
Very early into the project, public policy personnel figured that one big challenge was arranging the logistics to deliver such a large number of vaccines. Not only did they have to ensure it was streamlined to prevent panic, the authorities had to also minimise wastage of a vaccine with a limited shelf life.
To begin with it announced a centrally coordinated staggered jab plan prioritising frontline personnel, to pre-empt panic. This was relaxed later to include those above 60 years (the most vulnerable group as they are likely to have existing co-morbidities) and subsequently the cohort above 45 years. Once the project had gained momentum with a better flow of domestically produced vaccines, it was opened up to those above 18 years of age.
To ensure streamlined execution, it opted for the strategy of One Nation, One Jab. It meant that all eligible people could take either of the jabs anywhere, any place in India. The intent was to avoid overcrowding in centres, especially at a time when social distancing was mandatory.
The union government managed this by creating the Cowin platform, built using public digital assets (PDAs). Not only did the platform enable online registrations for vaccines anywhere in the country, it also provided efficient real time delivery of digitally verifiable jab certificates with a QR code. This was done by facilitating the creation of an electronic registry.
The PDA used in the jab project was Open Saber-RC which allowed the Co-Win platform to create an electronic registry of the beneficiaries at scale. It was produced by Sunbird an entity that was created by the EkStep Foundation (co-founded by Nandan Nilekani, Rohini Nilekani and Shankar Maruwada).
In turn the Open Saber-RC was incorporated in another PDA—the Digital Infrastructure for Vaccination Open Credentialling (DIVOC). The DIVOC platform is like any other PDA modular in structure and enables:
Creation of a vaccination registry
Allow self-registry of a beneficiary
Distribute digitally verifiable jab certificates
Track performance in real time on a dashboard
So far this platform has issued 2 billion-plus jab certificates using DIVOC.
Nandan Nilekani, the architect and founder of Aadhaar, summed this up in a chat on Clubhouse, the social audio app.
“The fact that India is proving to be the vaccine capital of the world is good. The digital infrastructure, CoWin, developed by RS Sharma is amazing.
My friend in Seattle got his vaccination certificate scribbled on a piece of paper. My vaccination certificate was digitally sent and was QR coded, I got it on my phone within two minutes of my vaccination.
All this has given us a big burst of self-confidence.”
The Covid Warrior
There is no doubt that the friction-less delivery contributed to the success of India’s jab project. At the end of the day though this would not have been possible without the contribution of another key member of the team: The Covid Warrior.
The medical personnel, including doctors and support staff, undertook grave risks—in fact several of them succumbed to the virus—in going that extra mile to deliver the jab and taking care of the sick.
I am sharing a clip posted by ANI on Twitter, where personnel crossed the river in a makeshift boat to vaccinate people.
In the final analysis it is clear that the jab project mitigated the damage caused by the covid-19 pandemic. This is not just about lives saved. By overcoming the health crisis, the country was able to mount rearguard action to protect livelihoods; unlike the unfortunate experience in some other countries.
Like I said at the beginning, India’s jab project is a masterclass in the execution of a public policy project of such a gigantic scale. It is also a big boost to the self-belief of a nation that is so desperately seeking to break the shackles of the legacy of decades of neglect.
Take a bow India.
Recommended Viewing
Tomorrow is the 23rd anniversary of Kargil Vijay Divas.
This is the day in 1999 when India reclaimed its mountain heights in Ladakh, which had been surreptitiously occupied by the Pakistan army. The battle fought against inclement odds, lasted little under three months and led to the martyring of 559 Indian soldiers.
This incredible story of courage and grit is yet another ‘Yes we Can’ moment for India. StratNews Global Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale, who covered the conflict 23 years ago as a reporter for Outlook magazine, sat down for a conversation with Maj. Gen. SC Mohanty (Retd), who was then posted as Brigade Major in Drass—the ground zero of the battle.
It is a must watch as it recreates those compelling moments and the challenges that had to be overcome. Please click the link below:
Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Till we meet again next week. Stay safe.
Dear Anil,
Excellent as always!! Enjoyed reading your article with the eye catching title , Jab We Met, it is truly a remarkable achievement and the digital infrastructure CoWin reflects the success of Digital India.
After watching the video on Kargil war, I only want to say Jai Hind!! Salute to our brave soldiers!!
A masterclass indeed of grit and courage, after the onslaught of the 2nd wave of Covid. One has to also be aware of the dubious role of WHO, where it first failed to issue a timely warning of the fatal outbreak in China and secondly, when it dragged it's feet to approve our indigenous Covaxin, while giving express clearance to the Chinese vaccine, the efficacy of which is now in serious doubt, considering the repeated outbreaks and shutdowns in certain pockets in China. It is not enough for India to be proactive and inventive but the resistance from certain sections to acknowledge and accept India as an emerging power, has also to be taken in it's stride. The ability to be self sufficient is a defining moment in self belief.