Declare Corona Vaccine a “Global Common Good” without ownership

-          Campaign signed by personalities across the board including likes of Shabana Azmi and George Clooney

-          Prof Muhammad Yunus in an interactive session with FICCI FLO 

Mumbai, 6^th July 2020: FLO, the Women’s Wing of FICCI organized a webinar with Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. He discussed that it is not advisable to return to what used to be the normal in finance and economics and the present-day situation is a perfect foil to start new practices and business for social good.

Prof Muhammad Yunus shared his insight with FICCI FLO members “Corona has given us another chance, to change our direction otherwise world would have ended in few decades as a result of global warming, wealth concentration, Poverty, Artificial intelligence etc. so no going back, let’s just forge a new future”.

“Social businesses are here to solve problems around the world like poverty alleviation, global warming, migrant workers, medical facilities etc., that’s what we did when we created Grameen Bank. A business solution model for people who needed it, particularly to poor women. Grameen Bank is all focused on poor women, as 97% or 9 million of our followers are women”.

Speaking about the Corona Vaccine He said “The effectiveness of the vaccination will depend on its universality and to ensure the availability of the vaccines to all people on the planet almost at the same time, it has to be free from ownership. It should not go to the highest bidder that will create a mess. We should look at building pharmaceutical companies on a social business model as soon as possible. We have recently announced “Declare COVID-19 Vaccine a Global Common Good Now campaign” It has to be freed from commercial interest. The polio vaccine should be declared as a common good, not owned by anybody. Why not (have) the corona vaccine follow this path?, many personalities across the world are supporting this campaign including Shabana Azmi and George Clooney. ”

Jahnabi Phookan, National President FLO said “Grameen bank has enabled millions of poor women to be empowered economically. Grameen bank has helped and nourished women to grow and become self-reliant”. 

“We at FLO are focusing on sustainable livelihood and are connected with several implementing partners asking them to help us to reach the grassroot level. In our 17 chapters across India we are adopting a village each, working with local NGOs involved in women-led enterprises . We are to offer online training from NIITs for the grassroot level women to provide them with financial and digital literacy”.

Ms Rinku Mecheri, Chapter Chairperson, FLO Chennai was the Day Chair of the event and The Vote of Thanks was proposed by Sr. Vice President of FLO, Mrs. Ujjwala Singhania.

About FICCI FLO

FLO is the women wing of the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI). FLO was established in 1983, as a division of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) which is the apex body of industry and commerce in India. FLO has been promoting entrepreneurship and professional excellence among women through workshops, seminars, conferences, training and capacity building programmers etc. As an All India Organisation for women, FLO has 17 Chapters pan India - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Kanpur, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Northeast, Pune, Amritsar, Northeast & Uttarakhand, with its Head Office in New Delhi.  Its members comprise of entrepreneurs, professionals and Corporate Executives.