New Delhi: India is through reeling from a difficult crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic. Help is pouring in from the different parts of the World. The United Kingdom is one of the first responders to India's call for help and more resources in this fight. While the UK Govt has sent 600 essential medical items, many British companies and even diaspora groups are pooling in resources.
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In an exclusive conversation with ABP News, the High Commissioner of UK to India H.E Alex Ellis assured that the people of the UK are with India in this hour of challenge. Here are the excerpts of his interview with Pranay Upadhyay:
Question: The UK has also witnessed a similar second wave of Covid-19. What are the experiences and lessons the UK can share with India?
Answer: When we had our last big wave last year, the experience we had was very tough. But it's possible to manage the situation, through isolation, through vaccination. Both things which the Indian government is doing. By looking at science and following what the scientists advise us to do and by the population, really getting behind what the government is asking us - We got through it. India was helpful to us last year as Prince Charles said in a statement the other day you know, very helpful on pharmaceuticals for example and so now it's UK turn I think to help India, this is, you know, Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam!
Question: Vaccine has been an important area of collaboration between India and the UK. However, we saw some statements expressing inability of the UK to help India with extra doses of Vaccines. How do we see such statements?
Answer: So you asked me about vaccines and exchanges between the UK and India. You are absolutely right that between UK & India, one of the significant symbols of partnership is the COVIShield vaccine which is originally funded by the British government-funded for research in Oxford University, then translated into commercially by AstraZeneca, and produced with the Serum Institute of India. So that's a great example of UK Indian cooperation. At the moment, India is by far the biggest producer of these vaccines at the Serum Institute of India. A maximum number of vaccines at the moment are being produced in India.
We stay regularly in touch with the government about the exchange of vaccines. But at the moment, I think that the Indian vaccine drives so important to everybody. Thus is being supported through a vaccine, with the research, which was done in the UK, commercialization so we're very happy about that. For now, India's needed the greatest. We see that, but we'll keep very close ties to governments about how we work on vaccine collaboration.
Question: India and UK have a significant scientific partnership. At a time when the new variants of Covid-19 virus are becoming a problem, how both countries are planning to work jointly to fight this pandemic?
Answer: I think the UK is India's second-biggest research partner and biggest European research partner. And another amazing statistic is that more Indian nationals are working in UK's National Health System, and I think of any other nation outside. So the human connections are very strong.
I think it's the immediate crisis, which is very important. That's why we shipped out 600 pieces of medical equipment.
But I think there are some areas where we could work closer together like genomic testing. For example, making sure that we are we create the capability to have proper genomic studies between two countries, researching into new variants. Also, swapping notes on how we can treat this disease. Because there are lots of experiences now in India and UK. I think we have a longer-term aim and that's one of the issues which Prime Minister Modi ji and Modiji and Prime Minister Boris Johnson will discuss when they meet virtually soon.