In the next couple of weeks, Phase-3 data of two COVID-19 vaccines tested by Indian manufacturers are expected to be submitted for emergency use approval. If even one of the vaccines gets the approval, a countrywide rollout to immunise the four high-risk groups starting with healthcare workers will begin soon thereafter. India has been vaccinating millions of young children with a variety of vaccines each year and hence has the entire system in place to roll out any new vaccine under the universal immunisation programme. But this is the first time a vaccine to be administered outside the programme and specifically for adults is to be rolled out. Since several aspects of the COVID-19 vaccination programme are new — vaccinating millions of adults belonging to specific groups, administering two doses of the vaccine a few weeks apart, and the process of enrolling the recipients and rolling out the immunisation programme — the government has rightly decided to undertake a dry run for
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The Congress-Left Front alliance for the Assembly election in West Bengal is notable for several reasons, though not unexpected. Both have been cooperating at the national level for several years now, and were partners in the recent Assembly election in Bihar. The CPI(ML), which was part of the ‘grand alliance’ in Bihar, is not part of the alliance in West Bengal. The Congress and the Left Front argue, and perhaps even believe, that the election will not be a straight contest between the AITMC led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the BJP. Both the Congress and the Left Front are staring at extinction in the State, caught in the crossfire of the intense battle between the BJP and the AITMC. The alliance is an effort to salvage what is left of their support base and consolidate their meagre resources. The downslide of the Left Front did not end with its ouster from power in 2011 after 34 years. Rising from the ashes of the Left Front was AITMC, but the shallowness of its politics
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An Army helicopter flies over a mountain range in Leh on December 3, 2020.
Lead

Notes from a year of unease

M.K. Narayanan
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A vendor waits for customers at his roadside eatery stall in front of a mural representing a frontline COVID-19 warrior painted on a wall in New Delhi on December 27, 2020.
Lead

Towards an effective vaccination distribution policy

Bhaskar Dutta
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Comment

The facade cracks for China

Harsh V. Pant Kalpit A. Mankikar
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Future, switched off

Ruchir Joshi

Summer of 42 to the Winter of 36, but there’s no need to panic

Suresh Menon

Values that govern advertising

A.S. Panneerselvan
 
Open Page

Soldier to soldier

K. Thammayya Udupa
Ashwini Kumar
Open Page

A sports lover’s century

Vijayan Bala
Seminar Conference Concept : Close-up Microphones on abstract blurred of speech in meeting room, front speaking blur people in event convention hall with lens light flare in hotel background
Open Page

Listening to great minds

Usha Jesudasan