India pushes Italy to recognise CoWIN certificate for Covishield

At the 21st session of the Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation (JCEC) with Italy, India raised several issues including the mutual recognition of CoWIN vaccine certificate and opening up of travel restrictions, the commerce ministry informed on Saturday.

An official release said that Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy Luigi Di Maio co-chaired the virtual session on July 9.

A total of 15 countries in the European Union (EU) have now recognised the Covishield vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for travellers. Belgium is the latest EU nation to recognise the Covishield. However, Italy is not on that list. The Indian side raised the issues of mutual recognition of CoWIN Vaccine Certificate and opening up of travel restrictions, longer duration of business visas and portability of social security benefits of Indians working in Italy, the ministry said.

During the meeting, three Indian companies and three Italian companies (made presentations focusing on the areas of green economy, clean technology and promotion of use of renewable energy for grid-based multi-energy systems. "They underscored the pioneering role played by India and Italy at the multi-lateral fora as early adopters of ambitious clean energy targets and invited the private and public sectors of both countries to explore synergies to further enhance mutual energy capacities," said the release.