--- title: "India's COVID-19 Vaccine Development, Manufacturing and Digital Response | Whitepill" canonical_url: "https://www.whitepill.in/milestones/india-covid-vaccine-response" last_updated: "2026-09-07T19:14:06.811Z" meta: description: "India mounted a large-scale vaccine development, manufacturing and digital deployment response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The nationwide vaccination programme..." "og:description": "India mounted a large-scale vaccine development, manufacturing and digital deployment response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The nationwide vaccination programme..." "og:title": "India's COVID-19 Vaccine Development, Manufacturing and Digital Response | Whitepill" "twitter:description": "India mounted a large-scale vaccine development, manufacturing and digital deployment response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The nationwide vaccination programme..." "twitter:title": "India's COVID-19 Vaccine Development, Manufacturing and Digital Response | Whitepill" --- [All milestones](https://www.whitepill.in/milestones) Healthcare Public–Private Partnership # India's COVID-19 Vaccine Development, Manufacturing and Digital Response 16 January 2021 India mounted a large-scale vaccine development, manufacturing and digital deployment response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The nationwide vaccination programme began on 16 January 2021 using Covaxin and Covishield, both manufactured domestically. Covaxin was India's first fully indigenous COVID-19 vaccine, developed through a public-private partnership between the Indian Council of Medical Research, its National Institute of Virology in Pune and Bharat Biotech. Covishield was based on Oxford University–AstraZeneca vaccine technology and was manufactured at enormous scale in India by the Serum Institute of India. The campaign was supported by CoWIN, India's population-scale digital vaccination infrastructure for registration, appointments, dose records and digitally verifiable certificates. Together, indigenous vaccine research, pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity and digital public infrastructure enabled India to administer more than two billion COVID-19 vaccine doses while also supplying Indian-made vaccines internationally. Published by [Whitepill](https://www.whitepill.in/about) on 15 August 2026 ## People involved [Krishna EllaCo-Founder and Executive Chairman, Bharat Biotech](https://www.google.com/search?q=Krishna+Ella) [Suchitra EllaCo-Founder and Managing Director, Bharat Biotech](https://www.google.com/search?q=Suchitra+Ella) [Balram BhargavaDirector-General, Indian Council of Medical Research during Covaxin development](https://www.google.com/search?q=Balram+Bhargava) [Priya AbrahamDirector, ICMR-National Institute of Virology during the COVID-19 pandemic](https://www.google.com/search?q=Priya+Abraham) [Pragya YadavScientist, ICMR-National Institute of Virology and contributor to Covaxin development](https://www.google.com/search?q=Pragya+Yadav) [Adar PoonawallaCEO, Serum Institute of India](https://www.google.com/search?q=Adar+Poonawalla) [Cyrus PoonawallaFounder and Chairman, Serum Institute of India](https://www.google.com/search?q=Cyrus+Poonawalla) [R. S. SharmaCEO, National Health Authority and head of the CoWIN platform during India's COVID-19 vaccination rollout](https://www.google.com/search?q=R.+S.+Sharma) [Narendra ModiPrime Minister of India](https://www.google.com/search?q=Narendra+Modi) ## Timeline 1 March 2020 #### ICMR-NIV isolates SARS-CoV-2 Scientists at ICMR's National Institute of Virology in Pune successfully isolated SARS-CoV-2 strains from Indian patients, creating an important foundation for indigenous vaccine research and development. 1 April 2020 #### ICMR and Bharat Biotech begin indigenous vaccine collaboration ICMR and Bharat Biotech began collaborating to develop an indigenous COVID-19 vaccine using a SARS-CoV-2 strain isolated at the National Institute of Virology in Pune. 1 May 2020 #### Virus strain transferred to Bharat Biotech The SARS-CoV-2 strain isolated by ICMR-NIV was transferred to Bharat Biotech for development of an inactivated whole-virion vaccine that would become BBV152, commercially known as Covaxin. 29 June 2020 #### Covaxin receives approval for human clinical trials Bharat Biotech received regulatory approval to begin Phase I and Phase II human clinical trials of Covaxin, moving India's indigenous COVID-19 vaccine candidate into clinical development. 1 July 2020 #### Covaxin human trials begin Clinical evaluation of Covaxin began across Indian trial sites to assess the vaccine's safety and immune response. 1 August 2020 #### Serum Institute begins Indian Covishield trials ICMR and Serum Institute of India began Phase II and III bridging studies of Covishield in India. Covishield used the Oxford University-AstraZeneca ChAdOx1 vaccine technology, with Serum Institute responsible for Indian trials and large-scale domestic manufacturing. 1 November 2020 #### Covaxin enters Phase III trials Bharat Biotech began a large Phase III clinical trial of Covaxin involving approximately 25,800 participants in India, providing large-scale efficacy and safety data for the indigenous vaccine. 3 January 2021 #### Covaxin and Covishield receive emergency authorization India's national regulator granted restricted emergency-use authorization to Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Serum Institute's Covishield, making the two domestically manufactured vaccines the foundation of India's initial COVID-19 vaccination campaign. 16 January 2021 #### India begins nationwide COVID-19 vaccination India launched its nationwide COVID-19 vaccination programme using Covaxin and Covishield, initially prioritising healthcare and frontline workers. 16 January 2021 #### Covaxin enters national deployment Covaxin's deployment demonstrated India's ability to progress from isolation of the virus strain through vaccine design, preclinical research, clinical trials, manufacturing and national vaccination during a global health emergency. 16 January 2021 #### CoWIN becomes the digital backbone of India's vaccination programme Alongside the nationwide vaccination rollout, India deployed CoWIN as the digital infrastructure for managing COVID-19 vaccination. The platform supported beneficiary registration, appointment scheduling, vaccination-session management, dose recording and generation of digitally verifiable vaccination certificates at population scale. 20 January 2021 #### India begins supplying vaccines abroad India began supplying domestically manufactured COVID-19 vaccines to other countries through grants and commercial exports under the Vaccine Maitri initiative, leveraging India's position as one of the world's largest vaccine manufacturing centres. 1 March 2021 #### CoWIN opens self-registration for the public CoWIN expanded beyond healthcare and frontline workers by enabling eligible members of the public to register and book vaccination appointments online as India progressively widened access to COVID-19 vaccines. 3 March 2021 #### Covaxin Phase III efficacy results announced Bharat Biotech announced interim Phase III results showing that Covaxin provided substantial protection against symptomatic COVID-19, adding clinical efficacy evidence to the indigenous vaccine programme. 1 May 2021 #### Vaccination expands to all adults India opened COVID-19 vaccination eligibility to everyone aged 18 and above, significantly expanding the scale of the national vaccination programme. 1 May 2021 #### CoWIN scales for nationwide adult vaccination As vaccination opened to all adults, CoWIN became the nationwide digital system connecting citizens, vaccination centres and administrators while maintaining dose records across public and private vaccination facilities. 1 June 2021 #### CoWIN APIs enable third-party integrations The government made CoWIN APIs available to developers, enabling third-party applications and services to integrate vaccination-centre discovery, availability information and other vaccination-related functionality with the national platform. 3 July 2021 #### Covaxin final Phase III analysis announced Bharat Biotech announced the final analysis of its Phase III trial, reporting overall efficacy of approximately 77.8% against symptomatic COVID-19 and strong protection against severe disease. 5 July 2021 #### India hosts CoWIN Global Conclave India hosted the CoWIN Global Conclave and offered the technology behind the platform to countries interested in adapting it for their vaccination programmes, positioning CoWIN as an example of Indian digital public infrastructure built for population-scale deployment. 21 October 2021 #### India administers one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses India crossed one billion administered COVID-19 vaccine doses, demonstrating the scale at which domestically manufactured vaccines and India's vaccination infrastructure had been deployed. 21 October 2021 #### CoWIN records vaccination campaign at billion-dose scale As India crossed one billion administered doses, CoWIN provided nationwide digital infrastructure for recording vaccinations, managing beneficiary records and issuing digitally verifiable certificates. 3 November 2021 #### WHO grants Emergency Use Listing to Covaxin The World Health Organization granted an Emergency Use Listing to Bharat Biotech's Covaxin after reviewing its quality, safety and efficacy data, providing international regulatory recognition for India's indigenous COVID-19 vaccine. 3 November 2021 #### WHO reports 78% efficacy for Covaxin WHO reported that Covaxin demonstrated approximately 78% efficacy against COVID-19 of any severity 14 or more days after the second dose and noted its suitability for low- and middle-income countries because of relatively straightforward storage requirements. 14 December 2021 #### Indian vaccine manufacturing reaches massive scale Serum Institute reported Covishield manufacturing capacity of approximately 250–275 million doses per month, while Bharat Biotech reported Covaxin capacity of approximately 50–60 million doses per month. 3 January 2022 #### Vaccination expands to adolescents India expanded its COVID-19 vaccination programme to the 15–18 age group, with Covaxin used for vaccination of eligible adolescents. 17 July 2022 #### India crosses two billion vaccine doses India's COVID-19 vaccination programme crossed two billion administered doses, marking one of the largest vaccination efforts undertaken anywhere in the world. 17 July 2022 #### CoWIN supports vaccination campaign beyond two billion doses CoWIN served as the digital backbone for India's vaccination campaign as cumulative administered doses crossed two billion, maintaining population-scale vaccination records and digital certification. ## Resources - [officialpib.gov.in](https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1787361) - [officialpib.gov.in](https://www.pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1685761) - [officialpib.gov.in](https://www.pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1703442) - [officialpib.gov.in](https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1748301) - [officialpib.gov.in](https://www.pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1781267) - [officialwho.int](https://www.who.int/news/item/03-11-2021-who-issues-emergency-use-listing-for-eighth-covid-19-vaccine) - [officialcowin.gov.in](https://www.cowin.gov.in/) - [officialmohfw.gov.in](https://www.mohfw.gov.in/) - [officialniv.icmr.gov.in](https://niv.icmr.gov.in/)