FOR A CLEAN AND HEALTHY CAPITAL

Excerpts from the speech by Lt Governor V.K. Saxena at THE WEEK Best Hospitals Awards 2022

It is said that adversity brings out the best in us. As Covid-19 spread across the world, most advanced countries in Europe and elsewhere reeled under it. India calibrated its response systematically and dealt with the situation with unprecedented innovations and ingenuity. The manner in which we were able to provide for food and other essentials during the lockdown and vaccinate a billion and more of our people has been a remarkable feat. Indeed, there were problems about oxygen availability and drugs shortage. But we faced the situation with fortitude, thanks to the thousands of our health care personnel. As the world is limping back to normalcy, it is becoming clear that not everything that happened during the pandemic was bad. Big innovations in healthcare technology and pharma industry happened during the period, often because of the urgency necessitated by the pandemic.

The pandemic changed the world as we knew it. This was also a period when THE WEEK came up with some of its best stories. It was the first Indian magazine to talk in detail about the looming threat of the pandemic in a cover story from China in February 2020. While most publications focused on the consequences of the spread of the virus, THE WEEK embarked on a mission to find its origins in another cover story in June 2021.

I would like to take this opportunity to bring to your notice the endemic issue of air and water pollution and mounting solid waste in Delhi. Even as we grapple with ways and means to address the challenges posed by the former two, we have been able to make a substantive beginning in the disposal of solid waste. And, it seems to be on the right track of reaching its logical conclusion.