India is ready to produce over 5 billion COVID vaccine doses by the end of next year to help the world in its fight against the pandemic, the Prime Minister of India said in his remarks at the G-20 meeting on 31 October, as he highlighted India's contributions to fighting the deadly disease.

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Foreign Secretary said the prime minister also stressed the need for facilitating international travel and spoke about having a mechanism of mutual recognition of vaccine certification as a means for this. Noting that the WHO approval for the emergency use authorisation for Covaxin, India's indigenous vaccine, is pending, India suggested that a nod for the jab will help India assist other countries.

A technical advisory group of the UN health agency will meet on November 3 to conduct a final risk-benefit assessment for the Emergency Use Listing of Covaxin. Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and AstraZeneca and Oxford University's Covishield are the two widely used vaccines in India.