oppn parties Covaxin To Be Produced By Other Vaccine Manufacturers

Story Of The Day

Assessee Not Responsible For Ensuring TDS Is Paid To The Government: Delhi HC
OPINIONS : Strongly Expressed

January 22, 2025

People Are Talking About

Rohit Warns Sarfaraz, Police Use It To Warn Two-Wheeler Riders

News Snippets

  • Sikh extremists attacked a cinema hall in London that was playing Kangana Ranaut's controversial film 'Emergency'
  • A Delhi court directed the investigating agencies to senstize officers to collect nail clippings, fingernail scrappings or finger swab in order to get DNA profile as direct evidence of sexual attack is often not present and might result in an offender going scot free
  • Uniform Civil Code rules cleared by state cabinet, likely to be implemented in the next 10 days
  • Supreme Court reiterates that there is no point in arresting the accused after the chargesheet has been filed and the investigation is complete
  • Kolkata court sentences Sanjoy Roy, the sole accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case, to life term. West Bengal government and CBI to appeal in HC for the death penalty
  • Supreme Court stays criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi for his remarks against home minister Amit Shah in Jharkhand during the AICC plenary session
  • Government reviews import basket to align it with the policies of the Trump administration
  • NCLT orders liquidation of GoAir airlines
  • Archery - Indian archers bagged 2 silver in Nimes Archery tournament in France
  • Stocks make impressive gain on Monday - Sensex adds 454 points to 77073 and Nifty 141 points to 23344
  • D Gukesh draws with Fabiano Caruana in the Tata Steel chess tournament in the Netherlands
  • Women's U-19 T20 WC - In a stunning game, debutants Nigeria beat New Zealand by 2 runs
  • Rohit Sharma to play under Ajinkye Rahane in Mumbai's Ranji match against J&K
  • Virat Kohli to play in Delhi's last group Ranji trophy match against Saurashtra. This will be his first Ranji match in 12 years
  • The toll in the Rajouri mystery illness case rose to 17 even as the Centre sent a team to study the situation
Calling the case not 'rarest of rare', a court in Kolkata sentenced Sanjay Roy, the only accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case to life in prison until death
oppn parties
Covaxin To Be Produced By Other Vaccine Manufacturers

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2021-05-14 01:29:06

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

Nearly a month after Prime Minister Modi first talked about using the entire vaccine manufacturing capacity in the country to produce the Covid vaccines and former prime minister and Congress leader Dr Manmohan Singh urged the government to invoke compulsory licensing provisions to allow all capable manufacturers to produce the vaccines, the government has invited all vaccine manufacturers in India to produce the indigenously developed (by ICMR and Bharat Biotech) Covaxin that is currently being made only by Bharat Biotech. NITI Aayog member Dr V K Paul said that Bharat Biotech has agreed to this arrangement.

This is a good move as it will help the government procure more doses from additional and captive sources at an attractive price. But it is regrettable that it took the government one month to take this decision. Under normal circumstances, such delays are part and parcel of both governance and corporate negotiations. But when there is a pandemic situation, the Disaster Management Act is in force and vaccines are in short supply threatening to derail the vaccine drive, one thinks decisions need to be taken on war footing. Such delays cannot be condoned in these troubled times.

But there is a stumbling block in the process as not all vaccine manufacturers in India have a BSL3 (Biosafety Level 3) lab which is necessary to inactivate a live virus in order to produce the Covid vaccines. The government must help those vaccine manufacturers who do not have this facility to get the lab up and running as fast as possible. It must provide them with funds and if import of equipment is required, it must allow and facilitate that. It must also assist them in getting the imported raw materials and provide them advance payments to fund their working capital requirements. Hopefully, once these manufacturers start production in full, there will be no vaccine shortage in India. 

Other Stories You Make Like

Editorials

Turmoil In Mollywood

Turmoil In Mollywood

NDA 3.0: Coalition Dharma

NDA 3.0: Coalition Dharma

In Depth

Supreme Court Gets Strict On Child Pornography

Supreme Court Gets Strict On Child Pornography

Editor's Pick

Budapest Chess Olympiad: India Are World Team Champions

Budapest Chess Olympiad: India Are World Team Champions
© 2014 India Commentary. All rights reserved.