Indian Americans in US Congress, tech organise Covid-19 aid to India
Some US lawmakers and wealthy technology executives have joined forces to boost aid to India since it grapples with a extreme spike in coronavirus infections, with a give attention to ensuring aid is equally distributed across the country, a Congress member said.
US Representative Ro Khanna, Democratic vice chair of the Congressional Caucus on India, told Reuters that Indian-American billionaire and Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla and other Indian-American tech executives at Google, IBM and Microsoft will work closely with the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on India.
The group is wanting to match Indian hospitals and other facilities with supplies of oxygen and other urgently needed medical equipment, and pushing the White House to do more for India, the world's major democracy, as a surge in infections overwhelms hospitals.
On Twitter, Khosla offered to fund the majority import of oxygen and other supplies to India. Khanna said Khosla has wanted to underwrite the initiative.
Khosla declined a obtain an interview.
Google said on Monday it had been donating another $18 million in India for victims and medical supplies, and confirmed leader Sundar Pichai was personally donating $700,000 to UNICEF's India response. IBM did not immediately return calls requesting comment.
THE UNITED STATES Chamber of Commerce, the greatest US business lobby, and CEOs from 40 organizations on Monday launched another task force focused on providing India with critical medical supplies, oxygen and other assistance. It includes a fresh portal where US organizations will offer in-kind donations.
Indian immigrants and their offspring, some with deep pockets, certainly are a powerful political force in america, and a large number of Indian Americans have roles in the Biden administration. Demographers estimate there are near 4 million persons of Indian descent in america.
AMERICA has faced criticism in India where local vaccine makers struggled to get raw materials from US suppliers. Administration officials insist there is absolutely no export ban set up, although the US Defense Production Act allows the government to provide preference to US manufacturers.
India on Monday ordered its military to greatly help tackle infections as Britain, Germany and the United States pledged to send in urgent medical aid. The World Health Organization chief called the situation "beyond heartbreaking".
The Indian-American caucus is ending up in the Indian ambassador this week to see what else can be achieved to speed distribution of unused AstraZeneca vaccines and other supplies to India, Khanna said.
It's been pushing the White House to accomplish more, Khanna said.
"The administration's initial response has been very encouraging, but the hope is that they will continue by releasing the AstraZeneca vaccines," Khanna said.
The White House on Monday said it would share up to 60 million doses of AstraZeneca Plc's coronavirus vaccine with other countries when the next couple of weeks, but gave no details on which countries would receive them, or when.
An AstraZeneca spokeswoman said these decisions are made by the government.
One administration official said it was important to ensure that US assistance was broadly available to the Indian people, but had no immediate comment on the initiative.
Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said there are questions about how exactly evenly Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party may distribute aid.
Muslims have previously accused the Modi government and his party of unfairly targeting them with lockdown measures early in the Covid-19 crisis, whenever a cluster of virus cases emerged from a fresh Delhi gathering of Muslim missionaries.
Recently, some opposition-ruled states have criticized the working of the country's mega vaccination drive and complained of vaccine shortages.
India's government has decided to leave the import of Covid-19 vaccines to convey authorities and companies, two government officials told Reuters this week.
India's Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan in a statement on Monday needed a finish to politics around the vaccination drive. Vardhan appealed to political parties to put the success of the vaccination program above the rest, saying, "The greatest need of the hour is a larger degree of shared idealism."
Separately, Modi on Monday discussed the evolving coronavirus situation around President Joe Biden, the White House and Indian government said.
Khanna said he is pushing Biden, a fellow Democrat, to lean on drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna to consent to a voluntary waiver of IP rights for half a year to a year, to help India boost its domestic production of vaccines.
Administration officials say Moderna has recently promised never to enforce patents in India during the pandemic.
Pharmaceutical executives say they will work around the clock to create as much vaccine as possible, Jha said, and trying to set up new vaccine facilities in India could divert needed employees and resources.
