The United States, as a precautionary measure, may have banned Indians travelling to its shores from 4 May, but it is working relentlessly to ensure that all essential medical supplies reach India without any further delay, ensuring a ‘global fight’ against the Covid pandemic. The Covid relief supplies from the US, which arrived on Friday, indicate President Biden administration’s all-out support to control the ‘Indian Variant’ as early as possible.
The US has come forward to help timely as India has collapsed under the weight of its creaking health infrastructure, inadequate vaccinations, and its policy makers’ inability to come out with a contingency plan to meet the demand-supply gap.
Many see the incoming US health supplies as a new lifeline for people affected by the coronavirus. At the forefront of this fight against the Covid pandemic in India, are the Indian origin CEOs, their US counterparts, and dozens of American companies working round-the-clock to make available the supplies to India at the earliest.
The Sunday Guardian spoke to Mukesh Aghi, CEO and President of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), which is at the centre stage of relief supplies coordination with other Indian groups and companies in America. There is hope in fighting together as the challenge is huge, says Aghi.
Excerpts:
Q: India is faced with a health crisis, no one anticipated or alerted. Is this a signal for a bigger global health scare?
A: India is going through the same phase that wreaked havoc in Italy, France, UK, or the US. The second wave was caused by lack of vaccination, callousness, and too many public events. India is suffering more because of the lack of healthcare infrastructure.
Q: How much impact does the Indian Covid pandemic situation have on the US and global economies, which were slowly getting back to business?
A: Almost 2,000 US companies have a presence in India. They have varied operations from direct sales (Amazon, Walmart) to R&D and back-office support. We are seeing critical back-office operations as a precaution being assigned to other geographies. The financial impact on the US is minimal when you look at the size of the US economy and its trade with India.
Q: The US administration under President Biden pledged all support to India? What all went to make that happen?
A: The US companies and its leadership were alarmed when there was no clear directive of support coming out of Biden administration, initially. Efforts by USISPF and others to nudge the administration paid off eventually with a call between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Also, planeloads of supplies got delivered to India quickly.
Q: USISPF has been spearheading the initiative with others. Can you elaborate on what has been done from the USISPF so far and what’s more in offing for India?
A: The USISPF has been focused on multiple fronts to support India’s immediate health emergency. So far we have committed to deliver 100,000 oxygen concentrators. Shipments have starting landing in Delhi at 1,000 pieces at a time. One thousand devices weigh 1.5 tons. We expect to deliver 25,000 in May. We have delivered 11 one-ton cryogenic oxygen tanks. Shipments of anti-viral supplies are being also delivered.
India›s health emergency needs a global response as this virus knows no borders. We are working with our member companies to alleviate critical shortages of oxygen by procuring supplies necessary to concentrate and ship clinical oxygen around the country. With the support of our members — Deloitte and FedEx, we are ensuring that the supplies reach India at regular intervals in May to control the spread further. We are energised and heartened by the support of our members and board at all levels, using their substantial resources and expertise to help address this burgeoning crisis in India.
Q: The problem is the demand-supply gap, which largely aggravated the crisis. How fast the global support, including the one coming from the US, will help India control the situation?
A: The current need is enormous if we have to control India’s health emergency quickly. We have estimated India needs a minimum of one million oxygen concentrators right away. The challenge is India’s manufacturing capacity, which takes time to ramp up. You have to look at the challenge both from preventive and cure. Preventive means vaccination, we need to ramp up production and delivery of these vaccines. The immediate cure lies in faster delivery of all these medicines and supplies. The challenge here is logistics and distribution. We are delivering everything to Indian Red Cross and it is distributing the health supplies in partnership with the Ministry of Health.
Q: Are there fund-raising efforts or any other fightback measures also being organised by the USISPF to help India from other countries?
A: Our efforts are with US companies and the Indian diaspora in the US. The Indian diaspora through its associations has launched fund-raising campaigns to help India. We are helping the Indian diaspora in Canada, Brazil, and others in North and South America.