India reaffirms its commitment towards greater sharing of knowledge, expertise, best practices in joint fight against Coronavirus

India has reaffirmed its strong commitment towards greater sharing of knowledge, expertise and best practices in the joint fight against COVID-19 for the larger regional good. India yesterday participated in a video conference of Health Ministers of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) hosted by Pakistan to promote greater regional cooperation to deal with the Corona virus pandemic.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, India was represented at the conference by Director General of Health Services who was assisted by experts from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). All the SAARC member nations are reeling under adverse social and economic impact of the Corona virus pandemic.

During the video conference, the Indian side briefed other countries about its efforts to ramp up production of medicines and essential materials besides its research on drugs and vaccines to confront the pandemic.

At the meeting, India also highlighted the successful use and promising future of new and innovative technology-based solutions such as the mobile app 'Aarogya Setu' to maximize community outreach and intervention.

The meeting comes over a month after India took the lead with Prime Minister Narendra Modi bringing the SAARC leaders together through a video-conference amid rising Corona virus cases in the populous region.

India has also developed an electronic platform for use by all SAARC countries to exchange information on response mechanism to deal with the pandemic.

The External Affairs Ministry said, as the next major step, the platform will be launched for exchange of specialized information and tools on COVID-19 among designated health professionals in the region.