<span style="color: #222222;">The concerted efforts of the scientific scholars along with government's support has ushered in a reassuring response in the country to handle the Corona menace. Speaking exclusively with AIR News, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Dr. K Vijay Raghavan said that extraordinary issues related to handling COVID-19 are being addressed by collaborative efforts of Industry and Government. He credited government's foresight and flexibility which led to the curative application of  both basic and applied aspects of technology to contain the effects of the pandemic to a large extent in the country.<br />'' <br />'' The Gross expenditure on Research and Development in the country under Prime Minister Narendra Modi Government in 2018-19 has almost tripled from its decade-old expenditure in 2008-09. Dr. Raghavan said, the initial Genome Sequencing reports suggest that the Corona virus strain in the country has not mutated to be more virulent than elsewhere in the world. He informed that India is both indigenously and with support of other partner countries working on development of vaccine for COVID-19.<br />'' <br />'' Speaking on use of traditional Ayurveda and allied medicines in terms of their effectiveness against viral diseases, he said, the research in this regard has also been accelerated.<br />''<br />''Amid the graded relaxations announced by the government, Principal Scientific Adviser Dr Raghavan has asked people to develop habit of maintaining proper hygiene, wearing mask and following social distancing. He said, everyone must download Aarogya Setu App in their mobile phones so that further spread of the virus could be checked.</span><br />