Doctor Who: India’s Soft Power Vaccine Diplomacy

That was the theme in India during the first months of 2021, alluding to the farmers’ protest in the capital and India’s vaccination drive and the race to vaccinate millions of citizens.

At a time of closed borders and mandatory quarantine, when survival skills bring out an internal sense of selfishness, and global cooperation around sharing scant resources of the vaccine is unheard of, India has adopted a different approach.

But at a time of social distancing globally, India has been active in its outreach exporting vaccines across the globe. While Doctor WHO (World Health Organization) has faced censure for being slow in its pandemic response and now in its vaccine distribution, India has stepped up on the vaccine distribution front to several countries, including Mongolia, to mitigate some of the delays by the WHO.

This is an approach; one where soft power meets concerted diplomatic outreach with India’s vaccine diplomacy.

Dubbed ‘Vaccine Maitri’ or Vaccine Friendship, India has shipped hundreds of vials of Indian-made Covishield vaccines to 71 countries so far. The vaccine is manufactured under licence from Oxford University and British-Swedish Pharma giant, AstraZeneca, but manufactured locally by Pune-based Serum Institute of India.

India donated 13 boxes (150k doses) of the COVID-19 vaccine to , making it one of the first 25 countries to receive the vaccine from India. During the donation ceremony, Ambassador of India…