Union ministry of health and family welfare receives Porter Prize 2023

Mumbai, March 3, 2023 :

In a significant achievement towards recognizing the efforts in health sector and especially Covid management, the Union ministry of health and family welfare has received the Porter Prize 2023. Prize recognizes the holistic strategy followed by the Government of India in control and containment of Covid-19.

The prize was announced at “The India Dialog” organized by Institute for Competitiveness (IFC) and US Asia Technology Management Center (USATMC) at Stanford University, on February 23 & 24, 2023.

The prize was presented to the ministry in the virtual presence of Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union minister of health and family welfare and Rajesh Bhushan, secretary, health ministry. The theme of the conference was “The Indian Economy 2023: Innovation, Competitiveness and Social Progress”.

The prize recognizes the strategy followed by the Government of India in managing Covid-19, the approach, and involvement of various stakeholders especially involvement of ASHA workers in the industry to create PPE kits. It was also noted that “the idea of vaccine development and vaccine manufacturing and the scale that India achieved, was tremendous. India has delivered more than 2.5 billion doses today, which has just been amazing. The ministry took all the necessary steps to combat the Covid situation in the country.”

Experts noted that the strategies followed by India in its Covid management have been very successful. They elaborated on the three cornerstones of India’s strategy – containment, relief package, and vaccine administration. It observes that these three measures were critical in saving lives and ensuring economic activity by containing the spread of the Covid-19, sustaining livelihoods, and developing immunity against the virus. India thus, balanced the social agendas along with economic outcomes in planning its response and thus, showed resilience through its healthcare system.

Porter Prize is named after Michael E. Porter, an economist, researcher, author, advisor, speaker and teacher. He has brought economic theory and strategy concepts to bear on many of the most challenging problems facing corporations, economies and societies, including market competition and company strategy, economic development, the environment and healthcare. His research has received numerous awards, and he is the most cited scholar today in economics and business.

Rajesh Bhushan, secretary of the ministry of health and family welfare, stated, "On behalf of the Union ministry of health and family welfare, it is indeed an honour and privilege to be a recipient of this prestigious award. We treat it as a milestone that would encourage us to do better in the future and ensure that our responses are more agile and evidence-based”  Pharmabiz