Shipping minister discusses business continuity plan with maritime industry leaders

The industry leaders highlighted the challenges like supply chain issues and movement of cargo and trucks, and requested policy interventions. They also made suggestions for increasing the coastal shipping and raising India's share in global shipbuilding, Ministry of Shipping said.

PTI

April 24, 2020 / 11:07 PM IST

Representative image

Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday discussed business continuity plans with representatives of the maritime industry. The objective of the interaction, via video-conferencing, was to discuss and prepare for dealing with the post-lockdown challenges with business continuity strategies, the Ministry of Shipping said in a statement.

"Industry leaders appreciated the proactive and timely interventions of the Ministry of Shipping in this critical time and ensuring smooth running of the ports. They also lauded many reliefs and extensions granted to the industry which inter-alia included not charging any port charges, demurrages, penalties for the lockdown period as it has proven to be great relief for the industries at large," the statement said.

The interaction provided a quick overview of the COVID-19 situation in the maritime sector, it added.

The industry leaders highlighted the challenges like supply chain issues and movement of cargo and trucks, and requested policy interventions. They also made suggestions for increasing the coastal shipping and raising India's share in global shipbuilding, it said.

Coronavirus LIVE updates

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

Show