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Bioeconomy
India is the world's largest vaccine producer and supplier by volume, and vaccines are the most visible part of a bioeconomy now valued at 195.3 billion United States dollars (USD). Behind the numbers sits a standing arrangement between public research institutes and industry funding, tied into the global coalition that pays for vaccine candidates against epidemic threats before an outbreak arrives.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2022: COVID-19 vaccine platforms, including Covishield
The coalition and India's part in it
- The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), launched in 2017, funds vaccines against emerging epidemic threats so that candidates are ready before an outbreak, and India is a founding member.
- The Ind-CEPI Mission is India's arm of that effort, run by the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (BRIC-THSTI) and the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).
- It delivered GEMCOVAC-19, India's first mRNA vaccine against COVID-19.
- Covishield, by contrast, is a viral vector vaccine and not an mRNA one.
What has happened
13 Sep 2026
India set out its vaccine and bioeconomy figures at a New Delhi meeting of the coalition.
- It put its share at about 60 per cent of global vaccine production, reaching more than 100 countries and meeting over 65 per cent of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) routine immunisation requirements.
- The bioeconomy figure for 2025, USD 195.3 billion, was 18 per cent up on the previous year.