NEW DELHI: The government has set up a high-level task force to work on cutting edge vaccine and drug testing for Covid-19 in India with the aim of forging convergence of industry and research to come up with lasting solutions to the pandemic, the health ministry said.“A high-level task force has been constituted to work on the frontier of vaccine and drug testing. Its main task is to speed up academia, industry and international efforts ,” Lav Agarwal , joint secretary in the health ministry, said.The task force, co-chaired by principal scientific adviser to the government K Vijay Raghavan and Niti Aayog member V K Paul, will also have representatives from other departments like Indian Council of Medical Research, Department of Biotechnology , Ayush ministry, DRDO and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research . Besides, the Drugs Controller General of India and Director General of Health Services will also be part of the task force.“Under this, the department of biotechnology has been made the central coordination committee to develop the vaccine. It will make efforts to identify the pathways for vaccine development. We will make efforts to make a list of national and international efforts of those working on vaccine development and monitor their progress,” Agarwal said.