Cyrus Poonawalla on Government Relations

Poonawalla tells Asian Racing Report 'the horse business in fact did help me', and he feels a reciprocal responsibility to the thoroughbred industry. He has been vice chairman of the Asian Racing Federation, chairman of the Turf Authorities of India, the Royal Western India Turf Club, the Stud Book Authority of India, and the Indian Pattern Races Committee. The pattern — diversifying into a non-core public role once the core business is built —.

Poonawalla describes the threat India's 28% betting tax — imposed under the Modi government on games of chance, including horse racing — poses to the tote, jackpots and racecourse finances. He says strong representations have been made to bring it down to the original 12% or at most 18%, with papers and presentations collected from Asian Racing Conferences showing that lower betting tax yields higher turnover, doubling or trebling revenue.

NPR notes Serum has partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and several United Nations agencies including UNICEF and the World Health Organization. By the time of the report, the company said it would ramp Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine production to 100 million doses per month by April 2021.