The Narendra Modi-led central government has recognized the importance of research in the country and has helped set up 6,000 start-ups over the past seven years, Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Chemicals and Fertilizers, has claimed.
Speaking on the Union Budget 2022-2023 at Dinesh Hall in Ahmedabad, Manadaviya stated, “There is no shortage of brainpower or manpower. If you go to any research institute in the world like NASA, three among 10 scientists are Indians. It is our brain. The question is of encouragement and providing support. This government has recognised this strength.”
Mandaviya claimed that from only 400-500 start-ups in India in 2015, the BJP-led government has initiated 6,000 start-ups over the past seven years. “Young people behind these start-ups have formed companies that are worth crores of rupees today. The aim of the budget was to recognise such strengths and highlight them,” Mandaviya said.
In his address to businessmen and traders in Ahmedabad, the minister referred to a meeting with PM Modi during the Covid lockdown in 2020, where 25 laws were “made” in 24 hours to aid vaccine research in India.
“Modiji called a meeting during the lockdown in April 2020. In this meeting, there were scientists and owners of pharmaceutical companies. He asked them for a solution for Covid-19. Scientists told him that we should fund research on vaccines,” Mandaviya claimed. The minister added that local research was necessary, since ‘importing’ vaccines would have taken “at least a decade”
