India underlines improving supply chains

Rome: At a summit on strengthening global supply chains convened by US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G20, Prime Minister Narendra Modi underlined that trusted source, transparency and time-frame were three critical aspects for improving the supply chains.

Speaking at the Summit on 'Global Supply Chain Resilience' on Sunday, Prime Minister Modi said that India has built a reputation as one of the trusted sources of pharmaceuticals, IT and other items, and was now also looking forward to playing a role in the clean technology supply chain. "I suggest that we instruct our teams to meet at the earliest to draw up an action plan based on our shared democratic values, within a given time frame," he said. While thanking Biden for convening the summit, Modi recalled that when the US president took office, he had said 'America is back' and "I would like to say, "Welcome back".

"In the initial months of the pandemic, we all felt the shortage of raw materials to make essential medicines, health equipment and vaccines. Now that the world is gearing up for economic recovery, the supply problems of semiconductors and other commodities are coming in the way of healthy growth," Modi said. Who in the world had thought there would ever be a shortage of shipping containers, he asked. Modi asserted that in order to improve the global supply of vaccines, India has increased the pace of export of Covid vaccines. "We are also working with our Quad partners to supply better and cost-effective Covid-19 vaccines to the Indo-Pacific region," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has described the outcome of the G20 Summit here as 'fruitful' and said world leaders had elaborate deliberations on issues of global importance such as fighting the pandemic, improving health infrastructure, boosting economic cooperation and furthering innovation.