Iskra ( The Spark)

  Vaccination biggest weapon in fight against COVID-19: PM Modi The Prime Minister, while interacting with doctors across the country through video conferencing on the COVID-19 issue and vaccination progress, appreciated the doctors, medical and para-medical staff for their invaluable service towards the country during the coronavirus pandemic. economictimes.indiatimes.com As per PM Modi, Vaccine and transparency both are key weapons to fight the pandemic. But his own government remains opaque on the vaccine governance. Here is how. RTI Application by Me RTI Reply by ministry Interestingly the information sought to be me is the same which is shared by the VK paul ( NITI Member and Head of vaccine task force) in Media. Here is it 18 May, Indian Express "We have contacted the manufacturers and sought information on availability of vaccine for August-December… In this period, 216 crore doses would become available in India." VK paul 27 May Livemint "The central government ...

Amidst complaints of vaccine shortages, the Centre has now rolled out phase 3 of Covid vaccination on 19 th  April 2021 where everyone above the age of 18 is eligible for getting vaccinated. But the cost of vaccinating the 18 to 45 age group should either be borne by States or citizens. The many States have announced free vaccines for all adults from May 1 but at the same time, many states complained about the fiscal burden on the state exchequer. So, the natural question that arises is – Does the central government have the fiscal space to do so? The answer lies in the Budget speech dated 1 st  February 2021 where Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman announced “ I have provided 35,000 crores for Covid-19 vaccine in BE 2021-22. I am committed to providing further funds if required" (Paragraph 38).  Two days later on 3 rd  February, Expenditure secretary of the Finance ministry, T.V. Somanathan, addressed the press and elaborated the government ...

Vaccines become the subject of the new political ruckus between Maharashtra and the Central Government last week. CM of Maharashtra and the Mayor of Mumbai alleged the shortage of vaccines in the state. In Reply to that, Union Minister of the Information and Broadcasting (I & B) Prakash Javadekar who hails from Maharashtra held the press conference on 8 April and blamed that the Maharashtra government wasted 5 lakh of doses.  On the other hand, the information provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) to me in reply to RTI says a different story. As per the MoHFW records, The government of Maharashtra wasted 3,94,278 doses of the vaccines till 11th April (That Included the waste of vaccines of 8, 9, and 10th April). This means the I&B minister presented the data with an exaggeration of 1.06 lakhs that means the data presented by Javdekar is 25% more than the actual waste of vaccines.  As per the MoHFW records till 11th April noon, Maharashtra receiv...

“Have and Have not” remains the heart of the Marxist theory. As Per Karl Marx, Capitalists are the class of the “Have” who dominate and Exploit “have not”. But here I would like to discuss another binary “Need” and “Want” introduced by the health ministry of India regarding the vaccination.   Karl Marx was clear in his thoughts that those who own the mode of production are the class of the capitalist and they are “Have”. But I would like to ask the government that – Who are in need? Does the government have any Specific answer? On the date 25 th march Ministry of Education writes the Ministry of Health to provide the vaccine to the Central funded education institutes on a priority basis. The Reason for this given is that – Students and faculties live in the campus and shared bathrooms etc.  The Scroll has reported that - Over 900 students at IIT in Gujarat received Covid-19 vaccines . I would like to ask the government some questions – Almost all students in the hostel shar...