ABSTRACT
This chapter covers India’s response and attitudes toward two institutional shifts in global governance that were present before and have only hastened after Covid-19. It argues that the rise of minilateral initiatives and emergence and clout of non-state actors like the Gates Foundation within international rule-making has left India flatfooted and unsettled given its cross-cutting economic interests that compel it to support causes that advance interests, engage cautiously or disengage when interests are undermined. It covered how India has responded to two institutional shifts in global governance that Covid-19 has accelerated - the rise of minilateralism and influential non-state actors like the Gates Foundation that work with states to mobilize multilateral coalitions to tackle trans-boundary challenges like Covid-19. Economic considerations, specifically commercial interests of Indian vaccine manufacturers like the Serum Institute and Bharat BioTech, and the ties both companies have cultivated with the Gates Foundation, have cooled India’s attitudes toward advancing global vaccine equity.
