Emergency fund, rapid response team: All what India offered to SAARC

As SAARC leaders gathered to fight novel coronavirus outbreak, India proposed a series of measures, including setting up an emergency fund where New Delhi offered $10 million to get it going.

Speaking to leaders of other countries from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in a video conference, PM Narendra Modi said said "any of us" can use the fund for "immediate actions" to deal with the pandemic.

PM Modi also said that India would offer rapid response teams of experts and specialists to member nations, which include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

He also suggested of creatinga common research platform "to coordinate research on controlling epidemic diseases within our South Asian region". He said Indian Council of Medical Research could offer help in coordinating such association.

"We have set up an Integrated Disease Surveillance Portal to better trace possible virus carriers and the people they contacted. We could share this Disease Surveillance software with SAARC partners," the Indian prime minister said.

PM Modi in its message to SAARC leaders said, "We must all act together, we must all succeed together". The other SAARC nations also agreed on taking collective measures to tackle the outbreak.

The SAARC, which didn't gain much success in recent years, was revived recently when PM Modi on Friday proposed a video-conference of SAARC members to chalk out a "strong strategy" to fight the pandemic.