Wellington [New Zealand], June 15 — Sapio Umbrella, a unit of government advisory firm Sapio Analytics, has initiated an association with the government of New Zealand to explore learnings from its models in an Indian context.
The same was announced in a recent session that involved Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, New Zealand’s Member of Parliament, and Suresh Prabhu, Member of Rajya Sabha and India’s Sherpa to G20.
The session was aimed to understand how New Zealand has been able to declare itself Covid-free after having faced more than 1,000 cases and how India can adopt some of its best practices.
New Zealand declared itself Covid-free on June 8, having not reported any active case since more than 17 days, during which an extensive asymptomatic testing of its citizens was done. It has decided to keep its borders sealed.
“The biggest achievement of New Zealand was that its people followed the regulations while not only keeping law but their moral obligations intact. They followed the concept of creating bubbles that was the key to social distancing,” said Bakshi about the methods adopted by New Zealand to ensure the spread of Covid-19 was controlled.
India was represented by Prabhu with dignitaries from various government departments and media houses in live attendance. He agreed with the need to make people aware of their moral obligations to achieve the right standards of social distancing.
Prabhu emphasised on the significance of a strong partnership between India and New Zealand, while referencing the historical association of the dairy industries. “Be it the issues of migrant or any other socio-economic issue India is facing, data plays a critical role in provide the right decision support for the governments,” he said on the significance of data in the fight against Covid-19.
“Sapio Umbrella shall continue bringing best practices from across the world to India, through our data driven decision support system, that can evaluate and optimise all types of impact and provide recommendations to governments at all levels,” said Hardik Somani, Chief Operating Officer of Sapio Analytics regarding the future plans around this association.
“For New Zealand too, we will provide a study of the model that can be contextualized by India, keeping in mind the vast geographical and demographic differences. We will share this with Government of India bodies, and with Government of Delhi and Telangana that have shown interest in studying the New Zealand model,” added Somani.
With a population less than that of Mumbai, the context of New Zealand is very different from India. But similarities in social and business interests bind the two nations together, and some learning can be explored through this partnership.
Somani, however, clarified that this is not a partnership between the two governments. Sapio will work closely with Member of Parliament Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi and provide a paper on the learnings from New Zealand to Indian government bodies.