IT industry body Nasscom has urged the government to temporarily relax the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) and liberalise the import of WHO-approved vaccines to harness resources by the tech industry for tackling the second Covid-19 wave.

The National Association of Software and Services Companies – as it is formally known – also asked the empowered technology committee of the government to set up a task force to critically implement its recommendations for optimizing the  use of data in the country.

“These actions will go a long way in helping arrest the immediate crisis at hand and also accelerate the only sustainable short/medium term solution to the pandemic through increased vaccine supply,” Wipro chairman Rishad Premji wrote on microblogging platform Twitter, supporting Nasscom’s appeal.

Nasscom said the tech industry had come together to seek support from the government to tackle the pandemic.

“With the urgent need to scale vaccination in the country, we would also request the government to provide emergency use authorization for all WHO-approved vaccines that have gone through a stringent approval process globally,” it said.

It added that providing a temporary waiver to the FCRA Act would enable the industry to bring in the required aid/supplies to India.

Source : Financial Express