India’s Response to COVID-19

Wed. April 1st, 2020
Zoom Webinar

India is witnessing a rapid surge in the number of COVID-19 cases with new instances being reported everyday. Recognizing the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, the Indian government announced a three-week nationwide lockdown until April 14, 2020. While India has taken lessons from other countries’ experiences and has ramped up measures to practice social distancing, it has one of the world’s lowest testing rates for coronavirus. As the number of cases in India continue to rise, what can be done to scale up the testing efforts, isolate suspected individuals, trace their contacts, and prevent community transmission?

Carnegie India hosted a virtual discussion with Taslimarif Saiyed and Shahid Jameel as they examined India’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, technology solutions for medical countermeasures, regulations that can help fast track the development and commercialization of such interventions, and the role scientists as well as industry can play to enhance India’s response capacity. The discussion was moderated by Rudra Chaudhuri.

Speakers

Shahid Jameel

Shahid Jameel is the chief executive officer of the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance. 

Taslimarif Saiyed

Taslimarif Saiyed is the chief executive officer and director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP).

Moderator

Rudra Chaudhuri

Rudra Chaudhuri is the director of Carnegie India.

event speakers

Taslimarif Saiyed

Taslimarif Saiyed is the CEO and director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP). His initial training has been in neurosciences, where he received his PhD from Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research, Germany and followed it up by postdoctoral training at University of California San Francisco (UCSF). He is an adjunct faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, and also Amrita Institute - School of Biotechnology. Saiyed also heads the Discovery to Innovation Accelerator program at C-CAMP.

Shahid Jameel

Rudra Chaudhuri

Director, Carnegie India

Rudra Chaudhuri is the director of Carnegie India. His research focuses on the diplomatic history of South Asia, contemporary security issues, and the important role of emerging technologies and digital public infrastructure in diplomacy, statecraft, and development. He and his team at Carnegie India chair and convene the Global Technology Summit, co-hosted with the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.