<span style="color: #222222;">Government has constituted an Empowered Group chaired by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant for coordinating with Private Sector, NGOs and International Organisations for COVID-19-related Response Activities. It will address the issues pertaining to identification of problems, effective solutions and formulation of plans with three groups of stakeholders.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">First group is the UN agencies, World Bank and Asian Development Bank, second is Civil Society Organisations and development partners and the third group is of Industry associations – CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, NASSCOM. Six meetings were conducted between 30th March and 3rd April with industry associations, International Organisations and Civil Society Organisations about their contribution to the response, their plans for the coming weeks, and the issues they are facing, and their expectations from the government.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">All 3 groups have proactively pointed out the areas where they need support which the government is following up. They have also been put in touch with other Empowered Groups for faster and more effective response and coordination.nThe Empowered Group had detailed meetings with UN Resident Coordinator for India, and country heads of WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNDP, ILO, UN Women, UN-Habitat, FAO, World Bank, and Asian Development Bank.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Following the discussions on these International Organisation's providing technical support in monitoring and surveillance systems, strengthening health and nutritional services, capacity building, financial resources and critical equipment support, etc, the UN in India has built a Joint Programme Response Plan and submitted to NITI Aayog, defining their clear activities and deliverable in different sectors and States, where they are partnering with Union Ministries and State Governments.</span><br />''  <br />