Economic Survey 2023: The shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic looms over our heads, though meekly. India has been able to vaccinate a majority portion of the eligible population and is already moving into the advanced phase of administering booster shots or precautionary doses. The Economic Survey 2022-23, tabled in parliament today by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, lauded India's Covid-19 vaccination programme lauding the success of the CoWIN App.
The Economic Survey 2022-23 highlights over 220 crores of Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered under the vaccination programme, as of 6 January 2023. India's Covid vaccination programme has seen a high participation rate, with 97% of eligible beneficiaries receiving at least one dose of the vaccine. The programme has been successful in ensuring that 90% of eligible individuals have received both doses of the vaccine. The successful rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination programme has been a crucial factor in the global fight against the pandemic.
The Economic Survey goes to length to describe the CoWIN system introduced by the government to tackle the logistical challenges. CoWin is a digital platform that provides real-time stock tracking of covid-19 vaccines at the national, state, and district levels. It provides the end-to-end solution with utilities for the entire public health system under India's Covid-19 Vaccination Programme.
Calling CoWIN a "successful digital story of vaccination", the Economic Survey stated that through this digital framework and Government’s vigour to increase its outreach that India could register a quick and durable economic recovery.
With more than 84.7 crore CoWIN beneficiaries registered with Aadhaar among the total 104 crores (between January 2021 to September 2022), the ‘Jan Dhan Account-Aadhaar-Mobile' strategy seeded in FY15 proved a boon for this digital system, as per Economic Survey 2022-23.
The Survey says, going beyond the registration and information-providing portal in 12 regional languages, CoWIN extended the issuance of digitally verifiable certificates as well.
READ: Nirmala Sitharaman Tables Economic Survey 2022-23, FY24 GDP Growth Seen At 6-6.8%