Under the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) emergency fund, the Government of India donated Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the member states.
The PPE includes 50,000 disposable facemask, 25,000 pairs of disposable gloves, 25,000 pairs of disposable shoe covers and 10,000 hand sanitizers. SAARC COVID 19 emergency fund was proposed by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a video-conference with SAARC leaders this month amid rising cases of the coronavirus in the region.
India first announced to provide US$ 10 M to the emergency fund and subsequently Nepal contributed NPR 100 M and the Maldives and Bhutan US$ 200,000 and US$ 100,000 respectively.
Samten Dolkar
