E-Paper
Here’s all that India did right to manage Covid-19 crisis, according to World Bank
The paper highlights the innovations that India came up with to tide over the crisis, including efforts to develop the domestic market for essential Covid-19 commodities and lifesaving equipment
Streamlined central procurement, government-supported long-term market development, early export restrictions, and funding private sector in manufacturing are some of the things India did right during the coronavirus pandemic, the World Bank said in a report released on Tuesday.
The report titled ‘India Covid-19 Procurement: Challenges, Innovations, and Lessons’ largely recognised and appreciated government of India’s handling of the Covid-19 outbreak.
“This paper takes a close look at the initiatives taken by the government of India (GoI) to ensure sustained supply of essential medical commodities during the critical initial phase of the Covid pandemic, including efforts to develop the local market following a whole-of government approach,” the paper read.
The World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank jointly funded the Covid-19 emergency response and health systems strengthening project in India worth $1.5 billion.
“Severe global supply chain constraints of essential COVID commodities and unprecedented demand for life-saving equipment led to an entirely supplier-driven market and to huge variation in prices. To address this concern, the GoI took over the responsibility for centralised procurement to support the states. Flexibility under existing legal frameworks and budgets allowed fast-track procurement, while empowered groups helped to accelerate decision making,” the report said.
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This, according to World Bank assessors, enabled accelerated imports to begin with, and the development of local markets later on.
“The World Bank has a way of assessing expenditure of funds at regular intervals and this report is based on their assessment of how well India managed to utilize the amount it was provided to manage the pandemic. It is a happy feeling to find that we have been appreciated for our efforts,” said a senior government functionary aware of the matter, requesting anonymity.
The health systems of most countries, including those rated high on the Global Health Security Index, faced new challenges in responding to the pandemic. To address the exceptional market uncertainties, several countries introduced innovations in public procurement to make processes responsive to the emergency context.
The paper highlights the innovations that India came up with to tide over the crisis, including efforts to develop the domestic market for essential Covid-19 commodities and lifesaving equipment.
According to the World Bank assessment, key innovations by India included (a) adoption of a whole-of-government approach to stimulate local production that helped to steeply reduce unit prices and dependency on global supplies; (b) introduction of accelerated tendering process and quality assurance protocols; (c) efficient supply chain management informed by computerized modeling that helped to project number of cases and admissions, including oxygen and intensive care unit requirements among states based on epidemiological trends; and (d) quickly moving the quality-assured Covid commodities to the government’s e-procurement site, which enabled states to start accessing these products at competitive prices without going through a tendering process.
The assessors appreciated the fact that India acted swiftly and implemented several crucial measures very early on in the pandemic.
“India started introducing emergency procurement protocols as early as March 2020, when the Covid pandemic was still evolving, with only about 1,000 cases and 29 deaths reported by the country… All ministries/departments responding to the pandemic were given flexibility to use its existing budget allocations for Covid-19 procurement,” the paper stated.
India also created a conducive environment for growth of indigenous medical devices industry.
The report highlighted how before the Covid-19 pandemic, India was mostly importing ventilators but 25 manufacturers including several newcomers came forward to produce ventilators with limited financial and infrastructure capacity.
The government made use of several automobile and electrical manufacturing companies to handhold these new entrepreneurs to produce ventilators.
Before Covid-19, India had three manufacturers of ventilators with a capacity to produce 10,000 units per year. As of November 2020, India had 25 manufacturers with capacity between 150,000 to 200,000 units per year.
