This should be the decade of research and innovation in India, said Rajiv Bahl, Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), at the inauguration of the international travelling exhibition "Vaccines Injecting Hope"at National Science Centre, Delhi.

 The exehibition was inaugurated by Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, Hon’ble Minister of State for Culture and Parliamentary Affairs, Govt of India. 

Alex Ellis, British High Commission, while addressing the same event, said that the great leap in science comes with imagination combined with knowledge. India and Britain came together with Covishield, which greatly contributed to saving people’s lives, he added. The diplomat outlined, "Science just can't be studied in a lab, it has to go out and reach everyone."

In terms of research and development, Rajiv Bahl stated that the country is experiencing unprecedented interest in R&D. He went on to say that if young people make R&D their goal, India will become the developed country that PM Modi envisioned.

The PM's Jai Anusandhan, which is a research and innovation initiative for Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan, and Jai Vigyan, will further enable this growth, the DG added.

The exhibition has sections on ‘The Arrival of New Virus’, ‘Designing a New Vaccine’, ‘Trials, Results and Approvals’, ‘Scaling Up and Mass Production’, ‘Vaccine Rollout’ and ‘Living with COVID’.

The exhibition showcases ‘Through the Lens’, an artwork commissioned by British Council and created through collaboration between Indian sculptor based in Delhi, Sushank Kumar, and a playwright in London, Nigel Townsend. The artwork drew inspiration from Thomas Hickey's 19th century painting titled ‘3 Princesses of Mysore' which was used to promote smallpox vaccination through royalty.

The exhibition has been developed by the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) in collaboration with Science Museum, London and with support from Wellcome, UK, ICMR, India, NIV, Pune, Serum Institute of India, CSIR, AIIMS, NIBMG, Kalyani and various other research and scientific organisations.

"Our India/ UK Together Season of Culture demonstrates our commitment to emerging India and UK artists, enabling them to connect and create engaging work. This ground-breaking exhibition provides a brilliant artistic interpretation of how India and the UK addressed one of our greatest collective challenges – the pandemic – through the vaccine partnership," said Scott McDonald, Chief Executive, British Council.

The Covid-19 pandemic struck the unsuspecting world with terrible ferocity and swiftness in January 2021 and claimed huge casualties. But unlike such earlier outbreaks, the world was prepared to quickly devise a defence against this new virulent disease. Where vaccines took decades to be formulated, in this case, scientists around the world could, using modern techniques hitherto unknown and unused, devise several versions of an effective vaccine in less than a year of its appearance.