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Would you take a Covid vaccine made in India?

The use of the vaccine for increasing soft power continues.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan worked with other democracies to help its diplomatic ally Paraguay get COVID-19 vaccines after China put pressure on the South American country to ditch Taipei in exchange for shots, and India stepped in to help, Taiwan's foreign minister said.

Chinese-claimed Taiwan has formal ties with only 15 countries, and Beijing, which asserts that the island does not have the right to diplomatic recognition, has stepped up efforts to coax them away.

Taiwan said last month it was helping Paraguay, its sole diplomatic ally in South America, buy COVID-19 vaccines after protests there over the government's handling of the health crisis.

https://news.yahoo.com/taiwan-says-india-helped-paraguay-063116485.html
 
Yes I would take a vaccine if needed from any country. Some people on the board don’t realize that more than half the vaccines on the world are made in India and plenty of pharma drugs ( that you get in Pakistan) .
 
If his boycott is anything like the boycott of French products that he iñwas following few months ago , then India has nothing to worry about. Hahahhahahahaha
 
Nope, all the covid vaccines being used in the US are made here so it's highly unlikely I'd get an indian one.
 
I wouldnt wear a slipper from India let alone injecting anything into my body produced in India.

You are already using, and have already used, a lot more Indian products than just mere slippers.

Stop thumping your chest over the Internet or maybe get off the Internet and check the labels of all the products you own and have owned in the past. You are in a for a treat.

Also, as the other poster mentioned, if your boycott of Indian products is similar to your phony boycott of French products where you hilariously claimed that one only needs to boycott products that are not needed, India certainly doesn’t have much to worry about.
 
You are already using, and have already used, a lot more Indian products than just mere slippers.

Stop thumping your chest over the Internet or maybe get off the Internet and check the labels of all the products you own and have owned in the past. You are in a for a treat.

Also, as the other poster mentioned, if your boycott of Indian products is similar to your phony boycott of French products where you hilariously claimed that one only needs to boycott products that are not needed, India certainly doesn’t have much to worry about.

Which products?

I do not support financing a nation which occupies and oppresses people. Indian production is poor quality, I would certianly be concerned the vaccine may not be safe.

Stop being upset over India on a daily basis :sachin
 
Which products?

I do not support financing a nation which occupies and oppresses people. Indian production is poor quality, I would certianly be concerned the vaccine may not be safe.

Stop being upset over India on a daily basis :sachin

What are your thoughts on financing a nation (UK) which sells weapons and promotes occupation tactics employed by Israel?
 
What are your thoughts on financing a nation (UK) which sells weapons and promotes occupation tactics employed by Israel?

I dont finance, I pay taxes which are forced by law. The UK also gives millions in aid to India. In return you are allowed to protest this, speak out against it. Not a single person on Earth is 100% happy with how their taxes are spent. On the other side there are Pakistanis who support Indian military action against Pakistan.

I hope your next post is more intelligent. Welcome.
 
I dont finance, I pay taxes which are forced by law. The UK also gives millions in aid to India. In return you are allowed to protest this, speak out against it. Not a single person on Earth is 100% happy with how their taxes are spent. On the other side there are Pakistanis who support Indian military action against Pakistan.

I hope your next post is more intelligent. Welcome.

No problem. Seeing this argument on forum a lot myself so want to see thoughts. I don’t agree with it either. Stupid points. Also you don’t determine who’s intelligent
 
India Covid-19 vaccination crosses 100 million doses

India says it has become the "fastest country in the world" to administer more than 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccines, amid a deadly second wave of infections.

It achieved the feat in 85 days, whereas the US took 89 days and China 102 days, the health ministry said.

But the country reported a record daily increase of over 150,000 cases - and more than 800 new deaths - on Sunday.

And there are reports the vast vaccination drive itself is struggling.

This week, half a dozen states reported a shortage of doses even as the federal government insisted that it had 40 million doses in stock and that the "allegations" of vaccine scarcity were "utterly baseless".

The inoculation drive aims to cover 250 million people by July, but experts say the pace needs to pick up further to meet the target.

Everyone aged over 45 is now eligible for jabs at vaccination centres and hospitals. Most doses have so far been given to frontline workers and the over-60s.

Since the pandemic began, India has confirmed more than 12 million cases and over 167,000 deaths. It has the third-highest number of Covid-19 infections in the world after the United States and Brazil.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56345591
 
Has Modi's Vaccine Diplomacy Failed?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has faulted India for not fulfilling its obligation to supply COVID-19 vaccines to Europe.

The Politico paper quoted Merkel as saying, 'We now have a situation with India where, in connection with the emergency situation of the pandemic, we are worried whether the pharmaceutical products will still come to us.'

'Of course, we have only allowed India to become such a large pharmaceutical producer in the first place, also from the European side, in the expectation that this should then also be complied with. If that is not the case now, we will have to rethink.'

Alas, Merkel's legendary flair for the minutiae of facts while articulating opinions is absent here.

But the sadder part is that the Modi government misled her, as it misled the UN and domestic opinion, regarding India's capacity to supply vaccines after meeting its own needs.

Of course, the root problem here is the Modi government's obsessive rivalry and oneupmanship vis-a-vis China -- to display that India is shining better than China.

For a start, Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed a grave mistake by publicising India as the 'world's pharmacy'.

From that point, India was hurtling down the hill for an inevitable train crash.

Such bombastic imagery may work at election rallies but not in international diplomacy where the actor is held to account.

Nothing damages a country's reputation than boyish insouciance and caprice.

In reality, India has very limited capacity to make COVID-19 vaccines.

The Wire has featured an excellent analysis (external link) of the actual state of play.

The facts and figures are revealing. And the conclusions drawn are startling:

The government created a bogus misperception internationally that it will be the bulwark of COVID-19 vaccines for poor countries.

For, India's high capacity is 'not easily convertible to making vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic.'

The Modi government got carried away by its own bombastic rhetoric without having 'taken the trouble to inform itself of the actual capacity in the country and conducted a detailed demand-supply planning exercise -- the most fundamental of all tenets of managing any supply chain.'

Otherwise, it 'may have realised at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that India was woefully short of manufacturing capacity to vaccinate its own population.'

Having said that, the government bullied the two Indian manufacturers on pricing policy, refusing to support them with funds or even make advance payments against future supplies.

The manufacturers had to stockpile at their own risk. No dramatic increase in the quantity of vaccines is to be expected in the short term.

In sum, the Modi government was 'blind-sided by its own rhetoric about not only being atmanirbhar but also a saviour of the world. It didn't even look at the numbers and lost precious months that could have been spent shoring up domestic production capacity. Now, India has been reduced from being the "pharmacy of the world" to a "desperate seeker of imported vaccines.'

The great fiasco of demonetisation pales into insignificance.

If demonetisation took away the livelihood of millions of people, the disastrous handling of vaccine supply will take a heavy toll in human lives insofar as 'herd immunity' remains elusive.

The government stands exposed as not only inept but less than honest, and incorrigibly egotistic to boot.

When it comes to diplomacy too, India has lost heavily.

Its credibility on the world stage stands tarnished.

India strutted around as the pioneer of COVAX, the WHO's global initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

But it transpires now that India qualifies only as recipient, like Benin or the Solomon Islands, and not a donor. Fortunately, this mishap isn't yet in the limelight.

The limelight falls instead on the US' point blank refusal (external link) to lift the ban on supply of ingredients for manufacture of vaccines.

The ban came into effect on February 5. But the foreign policy establishment lacked a sense of urgency.

Instead, it began tom-toming that QUAD is rushing in like a knight in armour to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines in India!

There is no shred of evidence that Modi raised the issue of the US' 'America First' approach on vaccines with President Biden during the Quad summit held on March 12 -- full 35 days after the latter invoked the Defense Production Act to restrict exports of the raw materials to boost US' domestic vaccine production.

One wonders who prepares the PM's 'talking points'?

Paradoxically, the two countries that have come to India's aid are Russia and China.

Yet, the US has been twisting Indian elbows in recent years to atrophy India's relations with Russia, and there has indeed been a rollback to conform to Washington's diktat.

Modi no longer has time to receive a visiting foreign minister from Russia.

As for China, this isn't quite the occasion to write about it, but truth be told.

Suffice to say, the Indian narrative on Sino-Indian tensions is skating on thin ice today and it increasingly looks like a trumped-up alibi to form an alliance with the US.

Consequently, it becomes a bitter pill to swallow to accept China's offer of help (external link) to tide over the pandemic.

The plain truth is, China happens to be the only country today that is in a position to help India to cope with the pandemic situation in a meaningful way -- and it has come calling without prompting.

No doubt, the Modi government will be doing the right thing by discussing with Beijing the specific areas where China's help can make a critical difference today to saving lives.

What is foreign policy worth if it stands disconnected from domestic realities? Make no mistake, the horrifying visuals of the human suffering in metropolitan India is only the tip of the iceberg.

The vast swathes of the hinterland are heaving with untold sorrows.

What is 5 kg chaval and dal to alleviate that suffering?

India's foreign policies are far too militarised and 'geopolitical', and do not come to grip with the country's real needs and requirements.

After the Mandal Commission and the affirmative action in the 1980s and the ensuing exodus of upper class children to greener pastures in the US, our elites have come to regard America as the home away from home.

This elitist mania, paradoxically, has only deepened after the self-styled nationalists and their parivar took the reins of power in Delhi.

https://www.rediff.com/news/column/covid-19-has-modis-vaccine-diplomacy-failed/20210426.htm
 
(This column was written before the US decision on Sunday to send raw material to India.)

So all that bluster from bhakts wasn't worth anything. If US has now decided to send raw material to India for vaccines, it wasn't due to any particular diplomatic efforts from us (however there are bhakts who are crediting Doval for that too!), it was due to its own internal pressures!
 
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