India will resume export and donations of surplus vaccines from next month, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced on Monday.

The renewed export drive, known as 'Vaccine Maitri' will give first priority to neighbouring countries, Mr Mandaviya said.

Since April, India’s vaccine production has more than doubled and is now set to quadruple to over 300 million doses next month.

Only surplus stocks will be exported, the minister added.

India had donated or sold 6.6 crore doses to nearly 100 countries before exports were stopped.

The decision comes a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves for his trip to the USA where he will attend the UN General Assembly meeting and Indo-Pacific Quad summit being convened by US President Joe Biden.

India, the world's biggest maker of vaccines overall, stopped vaccine exports in April to focus on inoculating its own population due to the devastating second wave of coronavirus infections that suddenly hit the country.

This had come as a major setback to the global community amid the acute shortage of vaccines as India had exported or gifted vaccines to over 100 countries to help them fight the deadly pandemic.

According to the WHO, the poor countries have received only 2% of the total vaccines produced in the world and are lagging behind in their inoculation drive against the pandemic.

The Indian government wants to vaccinate the country’s entire adult population of 94.4 crore by December and has so far given at least one dose to 61 per cent of them.