The big vaccine paradox that Indian statism has given us
Empty ampules of the Oxford-AstraZeneca s Covishield vaccine are seen on a tray at the Dhaka Medical College vaccination centre in Dhaka, Bangladesh, February 9, 2021. REUTERS
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The health ministry’s press conference in New Delhi on Monday was of such importance that it should have had higher TV ratings than the India-England Test match. With scarcely 9 million having received the first vaccine dose in the month since vaccinations began in India (population: 1.35 billion) speed is a necessity. Ignoring social-distancing rules, reporters crowded around health minister Harsh Vardhan. Vaccines, Vardhan declared, “cannot be brought into the open market yet… if some wrong product comes to the market, then who would be responsible for it? How would the vaccination of people over 50 work? How would it be priced? “There is no clear-cut decision on this matter yet. The strategy for
Beware of Stockholm Syndrome after a beach holiday
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For all their pleasure, vacations can be taxing in covid times. Filling in govt forms online, for example, can bring on anxiety attacks at the prospect of a series of illogical questions
Returning home to the familiar captivity of covid can be such a relief that it’s easy to slip into a mutant variant of Stockholm Syndrome, happy to be around stuff that offers us comfort
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Duc des Esseintes, the wealthy aristocrat who is, in effect, the only character of the 19th century novel
A year on, China is shaking up the world
An economics consultancy recently predicted China would displace the US as the world’s largest economy in 2028, five years sooner than it had predicted just a year ago.
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The Middle Kingdom has come out stronger than ever after the pandemic. What are the implications for India?
The risk for China as well as the world is that over-confidence in Beijing and persisting worries within that country about the West seeking to curb its rise might tip over into conflict
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BENGALURU :
When news of a highly-infectious virus spreading like a medieval plague across the city of Wuhan surfaced in January 2020, there was reason to believe that the Chinese economic juggernaut would be stopped in its tracks. Almost a year on, however, consider the headlines about China’s economy, nearly all of which point to the world’s heavy dependence on China.
A global growth engine that’s in need of a reality check
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Speaking at a Confederation of Indian Industry conference last week finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “Considering our size, population and potential that India holds for good growth and building of economy, I wouldn’t hesitate here to say that we shall be the engine of global growth along with a few other countries. It was an extraordinarily bold claim. India’s economy is expected to contract by about 10% this financial year. India’s imports in October were $33.6 billion. By contrast, South Korea’s imports that month totalled $39 billion. In October, the International Monetary Fund forecast that China would grow by about 2% this year. East Asian countries have kept covid infections and fatalities at unusually low levels. Vietnam, with 95 million people, has recorded 1,414 infections and 35 deaths. India’s cumulative infection count has crossed 1