Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday assured to ramp up in supply of Oxygen and Remdesivir to states and reiterated the importance of creating micro-containment zones over lockdown.
Sitharaman, during a virtual interaction with industry captains, praised the Indian Industry for its extreme forbearance, patience and perseverance, and described it with Japanese word ‘Gamanzuyoi’.
Addressing more than 150 senior industry captains in the virtual interaction organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here, Sitharaman emphasised on the need for adopting micro-containment strategy in dealing with the 2nd surge of the pandemic and acknowledged that the deliberations with CII had helped shaped this strategy.
Explaining the rationale, the Finance Minister said that unlike last time ‘we now have important tools such as vaccines and medicines, to deal with the pandemic’.
On meeting the phenomenal increase in demand for medical oxygen, a critical treatment tool for COVID-19, the Finance Minister assured seamless supply to states.
Measures that the government is taking include importing medical oxygen, round the clock working of the oxygen filling stations and allowing containers used for nitrogen and argon to be used for oxygen, the Finance Minister added.
The Finance Minister also gave details of Government initiatives to help ramp up capacity of Remdesivir from 36 lakh vials per month to 78 lakh vials per month.
Some of these measures include rapid clearances for new capacities, stopping exports, stopping the exports of APIs and formulations used in the manufacture of this life saving drug, and allowing EoUs and manufacturers located in SEZs to also sell in the domestic market, she said.
