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 U.S. Representative Ro Khanna, Democratic vice chair of the
Congressional Caucus on India, told Reuters that Indian-American
billionaire and Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla and other
Indian-American tech executives at Google, IBM and Microsoft are
working closely with the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on India.
The group is trying to match Indian hospitals and other facilities
with supplies of oxygen and other urgently needed medical equipment,
and pushing the White House to do more for India, the world's
largest democracy, as a surge in infections overwhelms hospitals.
On Twitter, Khosla offered to fund the bulk import of oxygen and
other supplies to India. Khanna said Khosla has offered to
underwrite the initiative.
Khosla declined a request for an interview.
Google said https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-asia/supporting-india-during-current-covid-crisis
on Monday it was donating another $18 million in India for victims
and medical supplies, and confirmed chief executive Sundar Pichai
was personally donating $700,000 to UNICEF's India response. IBM did
not immediately return calls requesting comment.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest U.S. business lobby, and
CEOs from 40 firms on Monday launched a separate task force focused
on providing India with critical medical supplies, oxygen and other
assistance. It includes a new portal
https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/
resources-india-covid-19-crisis where U.S. firms can offer in-kind
donations.
Indian immigrants and their offspring, some with deep pockets, are a
powerful political force in the United States, and dozens of Indian
Americans have roles in the Biden administration. Demographers
estimate there are close to 4 million people of Indian descent in
the United States.
The United States has faced criticism in India where local vaccine
makers struggled to buy raw materials from U.S. suppliers.
Administration officials insist there is no export ban in place,
although the U.S. Defense Production Act allows the government to
give preference to U.S. manufacturers.
India on Monday ordered its armed forces to help tackle infections
as Britain, Germany and the United States pledged to send in urgent
medical aid. The World Health Organization chief called the
situation "beyond heartbreaking".
The Indian-American caucus is meeting with the Indian ambassador
this week to see what else can be done to speed distribution of
unused AstraZeneca vaccines and other supplies to India, Khanna
said.
It has been pushing the White House to do more, Khanna said.
"The administration's initial response has been very encouraging,
but the hope is that they will continue by releasing the AstraZeneca
vaccines," Khanna said.
[to top of second column] |
 The White House on Monday said
it would share up to 60 million doses of
AstraZeneca Plc's coronavirus vaccine with other
countries as soon as the next few weeks, but
gave no details on which countries would receive
them, or when.
An AstraZeneca spokeswoman said these decisions
are made by the U.S. government.
One administration official said it was
important to ensure that U.S. assistance was
broadly available to the Indian people, but had
no immediate comment on the initiative.
Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public
Health, said there are questions about how evenly Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and his nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party may
distribute aid.
Muslims have previously accused the Modi government and his party of
unfairly targeting them with lockdown measures early in the COVID-19
crisis, when a cluster of virus cases emerged from a New Delhi
gathering of Muslim missionaries.
More recently, some opposition-ruled states have criticized the
working of the country’s mega vaccination drive and complained of
vaccine shortages.
India's government has decided to leave the import of COVID-19
vaccines to state authorities and companies, two government
officials told Reuters this week.
India's Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan in a statement on Monday
called for an end to politics around the vaccination drive. Vardhan
appealed to political parties to put the success of the vaccination
program above everything else, saying, "The greatest need of the
hour is a greater degree of shared idealism."
Separately, Modi on Monday discussed the evolving coronavirus
situation with U.S. President Joe Biden, the White House and Indian
government said.
Khanna said he is pushing Biden, a fellow Democrat, to lean on
drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna to agree to a voluntary waiver of IP
rights for six months to a year, to help India boost its domestic
production of vaccines.
Administration officials say Moderna has already promised not to
enforce patents in India during the pandemic.
Pharmaceutical executives say they are working around the clock to
produce as much vaccine as possible, Jha said, and trying to set up
new vaccine facilities in India could divert needed employees and
resources.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington, Emma Farge and Stephanie
Nebehay in Geneva and Jane Lee in San Francisco; Editing by Heather
Timmons, Howard Goller and Sonya Hepinstall)
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