Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India is to collaborate with India’s medical devices manufacturing ecosystem, Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone Limited (AMTZ), to launch a MedTech Innovation Forum. The aim of the project is to showcase growth potential and developments in the Indian medical device industry,

The co-operation between the global organiser and AMTZ should give further impetus to the development of India’s medical devices manufacturing industry and accelerate investment in its technologies.

Slated to run 7–8 October 2021 in Visakhapatnam, a port city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, the first edition of the Innovation Forum is expected to bring industry leadership together with government and medical consultants to address challenges of import dependency and the need for technology collaborations. The forum has received support from apex industry bodies – AIMED (Association of Indian Medical Device Industry) and ADMI (Association of Diagnostics Manufacturers of India) ADMI.

Raj Manek, managing director, Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India, said: “India’s response and agility in scaling up manufacturing of medical devices together with strong initiatives by the government on making the sector self-reliant makes it an opportune time to introduce a forum that focuses on bringing medical technology innovations to the forefront. We are proud to combine strengths with AMTZ in this goal.”

The Indian medical devices market, which accounts for more than 13% of the Asia-Pacific (APAC) medical devices market, is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.5% through 2025. Dr Jitendra Sharma, MD & CEO, AMTZ elaborates: “The industry is poised for significant growth in the next five years. However, it is still largely import-driven with 90% of sophisticated devices being imported. The dialogue with medical device manufacturers and innovators will open up opportunities to empower the country’s strong healthcare and medical devices industry in the post Covid-19 era.

Messe Frankfurt India has been actively involved in tracking industry growth and addressing rising concerns on counterfeit products in the pharmaceutical industry through its Pharmasafe India conference and webinar series. In August 2020, the Indian subsidiary held the first virtual edition of the Medical Device Innovation Summit and is now closely working with industry leaders in the sector to launch Medtech Innovation Forum as a large-format Confex in October 2021.

Touted as India’s largest medical devices manufacturing park, AMTZ is a scientific infrastructure supported by the government, which intends to reduce import dependence and lower cost of healthcare by up to 50%.

Source: www.exhibitionworld.co.uk

L&T Technology Services Limited (BSE: 540115, NSE: LTTS), a leading global pure-play engineering services company, announced that two of its digital solutions have been recognized with the 2021 BIG Innovation Awards in the “Product” category presented by the Business Intelligence Group, USA.

LTTS has been recognized for its innovative products – Chest rAITM, LTTS’ AI based chest X-Ray analysis system to assist radiologists in improving speed and accuracy of diagnosis and LTTS’ proprietary building automation framework, i-BEMS that operates as an enterprise IoT solution and unifies all campus operations under one system.

There is an acute shortage of radiologists across the globe, leading to delayed interpretation & decision and thus longer wait time for patients. The AI-assisted solution from LTTS assists radiologists by fast triaging abnormalities in X-Ray, annotating and automatic report generation. LTTS has been lauded for creating a product that will benefit millions.

LTTS has also been recognized for contextualizing its offering to suit the ‘new normal’ scenario and create a new module, i-BEMS Shield for a safer workplace environment.

i-BEMS, LTTS’ smart building solutions for a post-COVID future – enables features such as automated temperature detection, monitoring of building air quality, and smart maintenance of social distancing norms.

Maria Jimenez, Chief Operating Officer of the Business Intelligence Group, USA said, “The pandemic has made mankind realize the true potential of technology in positively influencing our lives like never before. The world has witnessed some of the best of innovations in the last few months including democratization of access to new-age medical technologies. The role of engineering services in these disruptions is commendable and we value the consistent contributions made by LTTS on this front.”

Dr Keshab Panda, CEO & Managing Director at L&T Technology Services said, “We are pleased to receive the prestigious BIG Innovation Award, which is a true testament to the exemplary work done by LTTS engineers for our global customers. With a formidable digital portfolio that includes over 550 technology patents, LTTS is continually blending ideas and innovations with investments in new age technologies to deliver differentiated engineering solutions uniquely designed to address complex real-life problems faced by the industry. Having joined hands with leading lights of the academic world to create innovations such as the Chest X-Ray analysis system, LTTS believes in creating an ecosystem of excellence to continue engineering the change for the benefit of society.”

The BIG Innovation Awards, recognizes organizations and people who bring new ideas to life from companies across the globe, are judged by a panel of experts which include a select group of business leaders and senior industry executives.

Source: www.businesswireindia.com

India’s vaccine diplomacy took further wing with 1 lakh anti-Covid shots being sent to Oman, a close partner in the Gulf, after having supplied the jabs to immediate neighbours. Later this week, India is scheduled to send over 5 lakh doses to Afghanistan. India will also send 2 lakh doses to Nicaragua, 1 lakh to Barbados, 70,000 to Dominica and 1.5 lakh to Mongolia, though dates are yet to be finalised.

Egypt, Algeria, UAE and Kuwait have all purchased vaccines and are on the commercial export list. Apart from the gifts, Mongolia (10 lakh) Nicaragua (3 lakh), Saudi Arabia (30 lakh), Myanmar and Bangladesh are among those who have contracted to purchase vaccines from India. The purchases are made commercially but need export clearance from the Indian government.

Meanwhile, around seven million made-in-India doses of AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccine will be part of Pakistan’s free Covid-19 vaccination drive starting next week under the global Covax alliance, PM Imran Khan’s special assistant on health Dr Faisal Sultan said on Sunday.

As a special Pakistani plane departed for China to fetch the first batch of Sinopharm’s Covid-19 vaccine, Dr Sultan announced that around seven million out of the 17 million committed doses of Covishield would reach the country by March. “Though AstraZeneca is being prepared in India, it will come through Covax, an international alliance which has announced free vaccines for 20% of Pakistan’s population. DRAP (Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan) has already registered both Sinopharm and AstraZeneca,” Dr Sultan said.

The UN Covax initiative will see India selling about 100 lakh doses of vaccines. In addition, the UN will be buying about 4 lakh doses for its own workers all over the world.

India’s vaccination drive is attracting attention, with Indian ambassador to the Philippines Shambu Kumaran tweeting on Sunday that the Asean nation was examining India’s rollout of inoculations, pointing to reports in the local media there.

www.health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news

Medical devices have come a long way. From standard monitoring systems all the way to wearables, these devices provide powerful and, at times, life-saving aid. Now, as more and more devices incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), they require regulation. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently announced new steps in that direction.

On January 12, 2021, the FDA released its plan — the Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML)-Based Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) Action Plan. In the document, the administration lays out the next steps for regulation and rolling out medical devices of all kinds.

The plan comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is again reaching peak levels in the U.S. and around the world. As societies respond to the pandemic, digital health has become a norm. Now, the FDA is getting on board and seeking to make the right changes. That way, they can ensure these devices are effective and safe for everyone.

However, with changes like these, industries of all kinds — primarily manufacturing, healthcare, and technology — are going to see ripples. An adjustment is coming in America, with the FDA trying to stay ahead of the trends and the pandemic.

Details of the Plan

The plan spans from initial changes to the widespread effects the FDA hopes to see. First, the agency takes into account product life cycles, patient care, safety, effectiveness, and innovation. These factors are the underlying motivators for making medical device changes. How functional are these devices? Do they last a while? Can they predict conditions properly?

The actions that the FDA is now focusing on include better machine learning development, improved patient care, smarter algorithms, and creating a real-world performance impact. With these goals, the agency can now focus on making medical devices as effective as possible.

Another main action point in this plan is for the FDA to continuously release regulatory frameworks. These guidelines will help manufacturers, tech workers, and healthcare employees understand how they can create, optimize and carry out the right interactions with medical devices.

Regulations and guidelines have long since been part of the FDA’s protocols. Medical device manufacturers comply with ISO 13485 FDA requirements, ensuring safety and standardization for health technologies. As the general public in the U.S. focuses on privacy and security during a pandemic, manufacturers will again need to reevaluate consumer requirements for effectiveness and security.

A top priority will be ensuring these devices have proper encryption to secure all the patient information. Each organization that develops them will be responsible for patient care. These changes are especially important when scams and breaches are abundant.

The AI/ML plan comes from stakeholder feedback that the FDA received in 2019. Moving forward, the agency is sure to consider the needs of the supply chain, too.

How a Biden Administration Changes Things

You may notice that political shifts change everything. The effects trickle down to even the smallest of things, like medical devices. Now that President Joe Biden is in office, the FDA’s methods will look different. Not only does a Biden presidency mean there’s a new head of the FDA in place, but executive orders from the Trump era may see a reversal.

For instance, a Trump executive order from January 2017 changed regulations. It dictated that executive departments, including the FDA, would need to find two regulations to be repealed whenever new regulation comes about.

A seemingly counterintuitive move, adding regulations just to take some away would not help healthcare patients. Instead, Biden is gearing his focus towards the pandemic. This shift means that regulations will be strict and, at times, swift. Helping people, like rolling out new guidelines for medical devices, is the end goal.

The Bigger Movement

The age of digital health is here. With quick adaptation through the pandemic, healthcare providers know how to use tech in-person or from afar. AI and ML devices are part of this movement. As the industry continues to evolve, the FDA is now seeking to catch up with such rapid changes. Then, digital health can truly work for the good of humanity.

Source: www.intpolicydigest.org

According to a recent report by The Lancet Commission, AI-powered medical devices are poorly regulated in the European Union and the United States. Recently, scientists from University of Zurich have published a report on the approval process of medical devices in the EU and the US. The review exposed glaring loopholes in the process.

Here, we try to analyse the failures of the EU and the US governments in regulating AI-powered medical devices. We will also delve into the regulation of such devices in India and what needs to be done to improve it.

What Is Happening In The US & The EU?

Majority of the AI-powered medical devices in the EU and the US are used by radiologists to interpret CT and MRI scans. The US and the EU have approved a substantial number of medical devices in the last five years as the clinical adoptions increase. However, according to the study, out of 462 approvals, only five devices in the EU and the US sufficiently demonstrated safety and effectiveness.

The US has a centralised approval system, where the Food & Drugs Association (FDA) solely maintains a repository of all the approved medical devices. However, it still does not have a specific pathway to approve AI-based medical devices.The most stringent ‘premarket approval’ process was used for only three of the 222 devices cleared in the US. However, the US has mooted an action plan to regulate AI-powered medical devices based on the product’s lifecycle.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the approvals are not centralised. The EU-27, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Turkey are allowed to approve medical devices individually. Approvals are based on the device’s classification, from Class I to III. Class III has the most stringent rules for approval.

Interestingly, only two devices out of the 240 were approved using Class III. Moreover, the approval of Class II and III can be done by Private Notified Bodies who can confer Conformité Européenne (CE) mark to the devices. Less than two in three devices were approved using this mark.

India’s Status

India’s medical devices sector saw an inflow of FDI worth $1.8 billion from 2000 to 2019, with the market size expected to hit $50 billion by 2025. Forget AI-powered medical devices space, India lacks the infrastructure and legal frameworks for AI in general.

In India, medical devices and drugs used to be under the same category until recently. A clear distinction was made only in 2017 under the new Medical Device Rules. However, it did not take into account softwares used for medical purposes under its purview. In 2020, an amendment was introduced. The change in law also mandated ISO certifications for importers or manufacturers of the device.

While compliance with international norms does ensure some quality, the proposed framework still does not have specific provisions to deal with the dynamic demands of emerging technologies, the research showed. At the same time, adopting Western standards and mechanisms for AI-based medical devices might limit AI innovations in healthcare, given the country’s unique ecosystem.

India does not have a framework to classify various medical devices based on a clinical understanding or AI modalities. Different levels of approvals, depending on a ‘risk-assessment framework’, can drive innovation. Based on the framework, the deployment of low-risk medical devices can be prioritised, and stringent regulation around high-risk medical devices can be ensured.

It is also essential to take stock of the AI-enabled medical device’s interaction with humans, especially for high-risk machines. The human element should be accounted for in the approval process to do a more holistic assessment of the medical devices.

Lastly, under the Medical Devices Rules, the US’ FDA or EU’s CE certified medical devices can be marketed in India without undergoing clinical trials. In the light of The Lancet Commission’s study, this is worrisome, and India needs to consider the various categories of FDA and CE approvals in detail. This is especially true in CE-approved devices since 12 CE approvals were found to be unsafe or ineffective by the FDA.

Wrapping Up

AI is making huge inroads into the healthcare industry. It presents immense potential, especially in a country like India, with a flawed healthcare system. However, as medical devices enter the market, it is also essential to ensure their effectiveness and safety.

Countries worldwide need to develop effective standardisation frameworks for AI-based medical devices with the right balance of innovation and safety.

Source: www.analyticsindiamag.com

India has become the third topmost country in the world in terms of the number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday. Only the United States and the United Kingdom remain ahead of India. The ministry said 12 states in India have vaccinated more than 2 lakh beneficiaries each. Uttar Pradesh alone accounts for 6,73,542 of all vaccinated beneficiaries. Till February 7, 8 am, a total of 57.75 lakh beneficiaries have received the vaccine under the countrywide Covid-19 vaccination exercise. The cumulative vaccination coverage includes 53,04,546 healthcare workers and 4,70,776 frontline workers, the ministry said.

In a span of 24 hours, 3,58,473 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 8,875 sessions. Also, a total 1,15,178 sessions have been conducted so far. “There has been a sustained increase in the number of beneficiaries being vaccinated every day,” the ministry said. “In another significant development, the country has reported less than 80 daily deaths in the last 24 hours, lowest in nine months,” it said. The country’s total Covid-19 active case is 1.48 lakh which consists of 1.37 per cent of India’s total infections.

India’s cumulative recoveries surged to 1.05 crore. A total of 12,059 new daily cases have been recorded in a span of 24 hours whereas 11,805 patients have recovered and discharged during the same period. The ministry said 81.07 per cent of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 6 states and UTs.

Kerala has reported the maximum number of single day recoveries with 6,178 newly recovered cases. A total of 1,739 people recovered in Maharashtra in a span of 24 hours followed by 503 in Tamil Nadu. The ministry said 84.83 per cent of the daily new cases are from 6 States and UTs. Kerala reports the highest daily new cases at 5,942. It is followed by Maharashtra with 2,768, while Karnataka reported 531 new cases.

A total of 78 fatalities have been recorded in a span of 24 hours.

Five states and UTs account for 69.23 per cent of the daily deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (25). Kerala follows with 16 daily deaths and Punjab reported 5 casualties, the ministry said. Seventeen states and UTs have not reported any deaths in a span of 24 hours. These include Haryana, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir (UT), Jharkhand, Puducherry, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Lakshadweep, Assam, Manipur, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Ladakh (UT), Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura.

Source: www.health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news

A new coronavirus vaccine has been shown to be 89% effective in large-scale UK trials. The Novavax jab is the first to show in trials that it is effective against the new virus variant found in the UK, the BBC’s medical editor Fergus Walsh said.

The UK has secured 60 million doses of the jab, which will be made in Stockton-on-Tees in north-east England. Meanwhile, a single-dose vaccine developed by Janssen is 66% effective, trial results have shown.

Janssen, a company owned by Johnson & Johnson, is also investigating whether giving two doses will give either stronger or longer-lasting protection. The company said its initial findings showed one dose prevented 85% of severe cases. Both the Novavax and Janssen jabs will need to be reviewed by regulators before they can be used.

The PM welcomed the “good news”, with doses of the Novavax jab expected to be delivered in the second half of this year if approved for use by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the government said.

The UK has so far approved three coronavirus vaccines for emergency use – one from Oxford University and AstraZeneca, another by Pfizer and BioNTech, and a third from drug firm Moderna.

The Novavax jab, which is given in two doses, was shown to be 89.3% effective at preventing Covid-19 in participants in its Phase 3 clinical trial in the UK, and around 86% effective at protecting against the new UK variant. The jab’s efficacy against the original Covid-19 strain was calculated to be 95.6%.

The Phase 3 trials – the final stage before a vaccine is looked at by a regulator – enrolled more than 15,000 people aged between 18-84, of whom 27% were older than 65, US firm Novavax said.

In the South African part of the trial, where most of the cases were the South African variant of the virus, the vaccine was 60% effective among those without HIV.

Stan Erck, chief executive of Novavax, said the results from the UK trial were “spectacular” and “as good as we could have hoped”, while the efficacy in South Africa was “above people’s expectations”.

He told the BBC the manufacturing plant in Stockton-on-Tees should be up and running by March or April, with the company hoping to get approval for the vaccine from the MHRA around the same time.

Minister Lucy Frazer told BBC Breakfast the government could not put an exact timeframe on when the Novavax jab might be approved as the regulation process is “out of our control”.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the new vaccine would be “another weapon in our arsenal to beat this awful virus”, if approved.

Prof Paul Heath, chief investigator of the UK Novavax trial, said the trial findings were “enormously exciting”, particularly because of the jab’s efficacy against the UK variant.

England’s chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty said, if the jab is approved, it “increases our future resilience” against the virus.

Nadhim Zahawi, the UK minister responsible for the vaccine rollout, said he was “particularly thrilled” to see the positive results as he had taken part in Novavax’s trials himself.

In total, the UK has ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and 40 million of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine – both are currently being rolled out in the UK.

Another 17 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, which was approved by the MHRA in early January, are expected in the spring.

The aim is to give everyone in the top four priority groups – up to 15 million people – a first dose by mid-February.

Pfizer and Moderna vaccines rely on technology that has not been used in previous vaccines, but the Novavax jab uses a more traditional method of recreating part of the spike protein of the virus to stimulate the immune system.

Like the Oxford vaccine, the Novavax jab can be stored at regular fridge temperature – which means it can be distributed more easily.

Source: www.bbc.com/news

An online memorial to commemorate Indians who have lost their lives to Covid-19 has been launched by a group of doctors and social workers. The virtual memorial will allow family members and friends of the victims to pay their tributes. India has reported more than 154,000 Covid-19 deaths, but infections have dropped sharply in recent months. Social workers helped by doctors, health workers and journalists will help run the memorial.

The memorial – nationalcovidmemorial.in – was launched at the weekend by the Covid Care Network, a non-governmental organisation led by a team of doctors in the eastern city of Kolkata.

Tributes are already being posted on the site – families need to upload the death certificates of their loved ones or provide their phone number for verification.

“A national Covid memorial is an initiative for Indians to keep alive the memories of their loved ones who succumbed to the disease. This is a place where everybody can join,” Dr Abhijit Chowdhury of the Network said.

“This memorial will restore some dignity of the people who died and were cremated without even their families being allowed to attend the funeral”.

During the pandemic, family members of the victims were mostly not allowed to attend the funerals. Such was the stigma and fear over the infection that a crowd in south India in August violently prevented the burial of a prominent doctor who died of the disease.

N Ram, director of The Hindu Group of Publications, said volunteers, NGOs and journalists would be needed to help gather tributes of “the poor and the destitute” who lost their lives to the virus. “The memorial has to be inclusive. We should not be missing anyone,” Mr Ram said.

V Mohan, a physician who is advising the memorial’s founders, said India didn’t have a tradition of commemorating the dead.

“We don’t have a tradition of memorials. We don’t remember the dead,” he said. “The tragedy and emotional trauma Covid caused will stay with the affected families for decades. This is one place people can visit and relive memories. This should become a national movement.”

A new single-dose vaccine has shown to be 66% effective against Covid-19, and offered complete protection against hospitalisation and death in trials. However, there are signs the jab, made by Belgian pharmaceutical firm Janssen, is less effective against the new variant spreading in South Africa.

The Johnson & Johnson-owned company is looking at whether two doses will give stronger or longer-lasting protection. It aims to make one billion doses this year. The UK has ordered 30 million doses, the US 100 million and Canada 38 million.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said if the jab was approved by Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) it could “significantly bolster” the country’s vaccine programme.

Crucially, no one needed hospital treatment or died from coronavirus after the Janssen vaccine took effect in the international trial. The news comes shortly after Novavax announced their jab was 89% effective overall in the UK and 60% in South Africa. Both new vaccines will need to be reviewed by regulators before they can be used.

Meanwhile, the EU’s drugs regulator has approved the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for people aged over 18. It comes amid an ongoing dispute over whether AstraZeneca is breaking its vaccine delivery commitments to the bloc, which has seen the EU confirm that it will bring in export controls on Covid vaccines made in the bloc.

The EU has temporarily overridden a section of the Brexit deal in relation to Northern Ireland, over concerns the country could become a backdoor for vaccines from the EU to be sent into the wider UK. Arlene Foster, DUP leader and Northern Ireland’s first minister, called the move “an incredible act of hostility” by the EU.

It comes as the UK reported a further 29,079 new coronavirus cases on Friday, and 1,245 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test in the government’s daily figures, bringing the total deaths by that measure to 104,371. Crucially, the Janssen trial looked at giving just one dose of the vaccine, which makes it significantly easier to roll out than those requiring two. It is also investigating whether giving two doses will give either stronger or longer-lasting protection.

The fact it works as a single dose and can be kept in a standard fridge, while others need super-cold storage, means the vaccine could have a significant role around the world. “A one-shot vaccine is considered by the World Health Organization to be the best option in pandemic settings,” said Dr Paul Stoffels, the chief scientific officer at Johnson & Johnson.

He added the vaccine could “potentially protect hundreds of millions of people from serious and fatal outcomes of Covid-19”. The Janssen vaccine uses a common cold virus that has been engineered to make it harmless.

It then safely carries part of the coronavirus’s genetic code into the body. This is enough for the body to recognise the threat and then learn to fight coronavirus. This trains the body’s immune system to fight coronavirus when it encounters the virus for real. This is similar to the approach used by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca.

Dr Mathai Mammen, from Janssen, said: “A single dose regimen with fast onset of protection and ease of delivery and storage provides a potential solution to reaching as many people as possible.

“The ability to avoid hospitalisations and deaths would change the game in combating the pandemic.” The results are based on nearly 44,000 people who took part in the trial and 468 cases of Covid-19.

However the vaccine was just 57% effective in the South African part of the trial, where a new version of the coronavirus is spreading, compared with 72% in the US.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the results from the early trials were “very encouraging”, and if the vaccine was approved doses should be available later this year. Mr Hancock said the Janssen announcement was “yet more good news”.

“If this jab is approved this could significantly bolster our vaccination programme, especially as a single-dose vaccine,” he said.

“Once the full data has been submitted [to the MHRA], they will consider the evidence to determine whether the vaccine meets robust standards of safety, effectiveness & quality.”

In the UK, the latest estimate for the R rate from the government’s scientific advisory group, Sage, is 0.7 to 1.1. It means that on average, every 10 people with the virus will infect between seven and 11 other people. Last week, the R rate was between 0.8 and 1.

The number of coronavirus cases in the UK remained virtually unchanged in the week to 23 January, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data. Its survey suggests the epidemic is levelling off or perhaps very slightly falling – but not at the rate hoped.

More than 7.8 million people in the UK have so far received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest government figures.

Source: www.bbc.com/news

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a new centrally sponsored scheme for the healthcare sector in Budget 2021 on February 01, 2021. The ‘PM Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana’ will be launched with a total outlay of Rs 64,180 crore over a period of next 6 years. Sitharaman said that the scheme will focus on developing capacities of healthcare systems, develop institutions for detection and cure of new and emerging diseases.

She said that the main interventions under the scheme will support over 17,000 rural and 11,000 urban wellness centres. This will be an addition to the national health mission, she said. In addition, the finance minister also announced that the government will provide Rs 35,000 crore for Covid-19 vaccines in 2021-22.She also mentioned that two more India made Covid-19 vaccines will be available in the country soon.

The finance minister highlighted that the budget proposals for 2021-22 rest on six pillars — health and well-being, physical and financial capital and infrastructure, inclusive development for aspirational India, reinvigorating human capital, innovation and R&D, minimum government, and maximum governance.  For the first time this year, the budget is being presented in a paperless format. It would be available to parliamentarians and the public online.

Source: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com