(Image courtesy: taxindiaonline.com)

 

“For the overall economy to grow, India needs to do unpopular things - do things that are good for the country. What good is a mandate if you can’t do unpopular things.”

Microsoft founder and celebrated philanthropist Bill Gates reportedly said this last month while on a visit to India. This sage advice has obviously not struck the right chord in the BJP-led NDA Government.

The new Government has dropped enough hints that it cannot break free from the web of populism spawned by the UPA with both the support & pressure from the NGOs and the judiciary. The NDA Government would thus only take decisions that are perceived politically correct. It has demonstrated this through its stance on the gas pricing.

The new gas pricing mechanism has been prepared under the dreaded shadow of public interest litigants and the Supreme Court. The mechanism is a political comprise between conflicting interests of different stakeholders. It is certainly not a long-term initiative for promoting national energy security and facilitating development of integrated energy market. 

Modi Government approved on 18th October certain modifications in the UPA’s convoluted gas price formula, which was contrived by a committee headed by veteran economic administrator Dr. C. Rangarajan.

The Government flaunted its commitment to populism by highlighting right in the beginning of its release the fact that “upward revision in gas prices will be approximately 75% less as compared to the price arrived at using Rangarajan formula.”  

Let Truth Prevail About Vaccines – the Deemed Drivers of Economic Revival     

 

 (Image Courtesy taxindiaonline.com)

 

 

“We are in the end game of the Covid-19 pandemic in India, and to succeed at this stage, we need to follow 3 steps: Keep politics out of the Covid-19 vaccination drive, trust the science behind Covid-19 vaccines, and ensure our near and dear ones get vaccinated on time”.

The Union health minister Harsh Vardhan stated this on 7th March 2021 while addressing an annual event of Delhi doctors.

Exactly a month later, Dr. Vardhan found himself outwitted by Covid. It mutated with gay abundance at home and abroad by availing prolonged lockdown as a public-funded hospitality. 

The variants of Novel Corona Virus have successfully challenged the efficacy of the vaccines especially in India. Hundreds of doctors, nurses & support hospital staff, leave aside other vaccinated persons, are down with covid disease across the country.

Even vaccinated doctors, who religiously wore masks, found themselves infected. Some suffered serious ailments with at least one - a 62-year well-known doctor, dying even after admission to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). 

Unfortunately, news about fully vaccinated healthcare workers catching infection is being under-played by the mainstream media for obvious reasons. About 1000 healthcare workers in Lucknow tested positive for Covid over two to three weeks, causing manpower crisis in hospitals.

In a hospital at Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh, a gardener was assigned the job of taking swabs as covid had infected many employees, leading to staff shortage.

All such cases of vaccinated persons need to be probed scientifically to know what is wrong with the first-generation vaccines. 

Corona Virus is, no doubt, back in the driving seat of governance on many fronts excluding elections to state assemblies and local governance bodies. Covid is having a major say in both the Government’s decisions and its inactions.

 (Corona vaccine. Image Credit: taxindiaonline.com)

 

The political narrative on India’s war against Covid-19 continues to sustain new hopes. Every morning starts with positive dose of feel-good news on vaccines or how lockdown saved crores of lives.

The spindle of hope has turned many times over from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stunning resolve on 25th March 2020 to win the Corona war in 21 days to solemn promise to give vaccine for each and every citizen. 

This optimism must be balanced with basics and the history. It is replete with frantic efforts to develop and inject people with wrong vaccines during 1918 pandemics & vaccine developers getting shock at fast disappearance of virus as happened in 1957 pandemic and 2003 SARS epidemic. 

It is not anyone’s contention that vaccine against novel corona viruses should not get highest priority. The efforts should not lead to grand illusion and false hope about corona vaccines serving as panacea.

It is here pertinent to quote Washington-based vaccine developer Sabin Institute (SI), which has been working vaccines against these viruses for several years. In a pre-covid write-up on its website, SI stated: “Past and ongoing pandemic threats from coronaviruses have prompted a new urgency to develop a pan-coronavirus vaccine as a global countermeasure”.

The plain truth is viruses causing influenza and its ilk keep mutating. Hence the composition of seasonal vaccines is decided at the start of season in cold countries. Public is encouraged to take shots of such vaccines at the start of flu season in developed countries. Efficacy of seasonal vaccines is an issue that puts off many from taking shots.