No need to panic, take precautions: Vice Prez on Omicron scare

New Delhi, Dec 4 (IANS) Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said there is no need to panic about the emergence of new Covid-19 variant -- Omicron, while advising people to remain vigilant and follow the Covid appropriate behaviour till the pandemic is over.

He also urged the people to shed hesitancy and get vaccinated at the earliest.

Launching Gautam Chintamani's book 'The Midway Battle: Modi's Roller-coaster Second Term' at Upa-Rashtrapati Nivas on Saturday, the Vice President said that the Coronavirus pandemic has come as a big challenge for the entire human race and appreciated the world's largest vaccination drive currently underway in India.

Naidu said that writing contemporary history is never an easy task.

Referring to the transformational changes brought in the governance over the past seven years, he said that these changes are both empowering and enabling the 1.3 billion people to deliver on their potential.

"Be it life expectancy, financial inclusion, access to healthcare, employment, owning a house, or honouring entrepreneurial ability, the quality of Indian lives is getting better with each passing day," he said.

Quoting the Prime Minister's three word mantra -- 'reform, perform and transform', the Vice President praised the tremendous progress made by the nation over the past few years in various fields such as financial inclusion, insurance coverage, number of LPG connections for poor women and tap water connection to households.

He said that following the principle of 'minimum government and maximum governance', the Government is leveraging technologies to bring transformation in every sector and expressed satisfaction over India becoming the third largest start-up ecosystem in the world.

"It is a testimony to the government's resolute commitment to improve the business environment in the country that India's ranking rose to 63rd place in World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index 2020," he added.

Noting that there are still many challenges in the path, the Vice President said that ever since Independence, India has faced many obstacles but we have overcome them successfully.

"Nothing could deter us from the path of progress and humanity. This is why India's success is the success of the world," added.

Calling for making India a 'Vishwaguru' once again, he urged all stakeholders to come together and join this Maha-Yajna of creating a self-reliant, prosperous, happy and strong India.

The Vice President further said that India's strategic partnerships are based on mutual respect and the nation has given a resolute response to inimical forces who dared to challenge our integrity and sovereignty.

"We are guided by our unwavering self-belief and our dedication to becoming 'atma-nirbhar' in every possible way," he added.