Global Assembly Focuses on Multilateral Health Security and Equity
Reaffirming its leadership in global health diplomacy and South-South cooperation, India delivered a key intervention at the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPPR) at the UN Headquarters in New York. Led by Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava, the Indian delegation presented a strategic vision for global pandemic security centered on equity, robust domestic health infrastructure, digital innovation, and sovereign rights.
The high-level session, attended by WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and UN leadership, focused on establishing sustainable multilateral frameworks to protect global populations from future public health emergencies.
Overview: Key Pillars of India's Address at the UN Pandemic Preparedness Summit
| Strategic Pillar / Topic | Policy Directives & Multilateral Proposals | Operational Scope & Targets |
| Equitable PABS Mechanism | Fair Pathogen Access & Benefit-Sharing under WHO Treaty | Guarantees developing nations access to vaccines & therapeutics |
| Digital Public Infrastructure | DPI classification as a Global Public Good | Open-source digital tools for tracking, rollout, & record-linking |
| National Health Resilience | Sustained domestic health system investments | Expanding lab networks, emergency coordination, & stockpiles |
| Global South Solidarity | Operationalizing 'One Earth, One Health' diplomacy | Building on 300 million COVID-19 vaccine doses supplied globally |
| Sovereignty & 'One Health' | Respecting national laws within cross-sectoral rules | Aligning veterinary, environmental, & human health policies |
Pathogen Access, Benefit-Sharing, and Sovereignty Safeguards
A central theme of India's statement was the ongoing negotiation surrounding the WHO Pandemic Agreement and its associated Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) system. The Indian delegation emphasized that the agreement's long-term credibility hinges on providing real-time, affordable access to life-saving vaccines, diagnostic tools, and therapeutic technologies for nations that share pathogen samples and biological data.
India's Proposed Pathogen Access & Benefit-Sharing (PABS) Pipeline: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Pathogen Sample / Genomic Data Shared ──> Respects National Sovereignty ──> Mandatory Tech Transfer / Supply Guarantee ──> Equitable Global Delivery"Countries that contribute biological samples and data must receive guaranteed, timely access to medical countermeasures, while respecting national sovereignty and domestic legal frameworks," the Health Secretary affirmed, warning against global political declarations that attempt to bypass ongoing technical negotiations.
Digital Public Infrastructure as a Global Public Good
Drawing from India's experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, the delegation advocated for recognizing Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) as an essential global public good for public health. Citing the scalable success of platforms like CoWIN, Aarogya Setu, and the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), India offered to share its open-source tech stacks to help developing nations build real-time disease surveillance systems, automated vaccination tracking, and supply chain monitoring networks.
Concluding the intervention, India reminded the assembly of its track record during global health crises—having supplied over 300 million vaccine doses to nearly 100 countries and two UN entities alongside essential medicines to over 150 nations. India called on member states to turn international declarations into concrete financial commitments and decentralized manufacturing capacity across the Global South.
