A Combination of Lockdowns and Vaccination Will Save Us

By Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw The second wave of Covid-19 descended on India like a tsunami. We were caught unawares and our response was one of panic and chaos. There was sub-optimal preparedness and rapid response planning. Hospitals were overwhelmed, medicines were in short supply and medical supplies of life-saving oxygen and ventilators were woefully low. From hubris and … Continue reading A Combination of Lockdowns and Vaccination Will Save Us

Lessons from the second wave of coronavirus pandemic

By Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw The second Covid-19 wave has hit India, and hit it hard. Record jumps in coronavirus infections on a daily basis have pushed health infrastructure to the brink in several states. While patients are scrambling to secure hospital beds, hospitals are running out of oxygen supplies and critical anti-Covid-19 drugs along with medical … Continue reading Lessons from the second wave of coronavirus pandemic

How India Should Be Rebranded for Post-Covid Global Leadership

By Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw The Covid-19 pandemic is an inflection point for India to introspect on its global leadership potential. Despite the economic devastation caused by the virus, India’s agility in pivoting its resources to respond to the crisis has made the country a global outlier. With 1.3 billion people, we have seen about 12 million … Continue reading How India Should Be Rebranded for Post-Covid Global Leadership

Indian regulator has granted Emergency Approval to Covaxin, Covishield based on strong scientific judgment.

India’s health regulator Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to two vaccines, Covaxin andCovishield , to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Covaxin has been developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV). Covishield has been developed by Oxford … Continue reading Indian regulator has granted Emergency Approval to Covaxin, Covishield based on strong scientific judgment.

World needs to balance risks, benefits and challenges of deploying COVID-19 vaccines

Biocon Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw recently spoke at Carnegie India’s Global Technology Summit, which convened leading policymakers, entrepreneurs, industry leaders, academics and technologists from around the world to deliberate over five days on an overarching theme of ‘Geopolitics of Technology’. On Dec. 18, 2020, the last day of the summit, Ms Mazumdar-Shaw joined Soumya Swaminathan, … Continue reading World needs to balance risks, benefits and challenges of deploying COVID-19 vaccines

A Well-intentioned Budget, But Needed to Do More to Jumpstart the Economy

By Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD, Biocon Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget 2020 was directionally sound but needed to do more to jumpstart a stalling Indian economy. The Budget aims to boost business confidence for India Inc. through various measures, including the proposal for a tax payers’ charter to prevent harassment by officials, increasing the investment limit … Continue reading A Well-intentioned Budget, But Needed to Do More to Jumpstart the Economy

2018 – A Year When Healthcare in India Got a Booster Shot

2018 has been a happening year for healthcare in India. Developments such as the launch of the government’s flagship universal healthcare program, Ayushman Bharat; the insurance regulator's direction to insurers to cover mental illness; the heightened focus on public screening of non-communicable diseases, all  point to the fact that healthcare is starting to get the … Continue reading 2018 – A Year When Healthcare in India Got a Booster Shot

REALISING THE GAME CHANGING POTENTIAL OF NHPS

The NDA government’s announcement of a health insurance scheme covering 500 million poor and needy Indians is indeed laudable. An estimated 75 million Indians are driven to bankruptcy and poverty each year because they have to pay over 60% of hospitalisation costs out of their own pockets. Given the dismal healthcare scenario, the NHPS can … Continue reading REALISING THE GAME CHANGING POTENTIAL OF NHPS

IHC Public Lecture: Strategic Importance Of Data Sciences In Research And Innovation

DATA IS KING In 2012, IDC projected that the digital universe will reach 40 zettabytes by 2020. This was based on the assumption that 1.7 megabytes of new information will be created every second for every human being on the planet in 2020. IDC realised that its projection was on the conservative side! Its current … Continue reading IHC Public Lecture: Strategic Importance Of Data Sciences In Research And Innovation