Vaccine Policy: How ‘atmanirbharta’ and image building hurt India’s vaccine policy

There has been a severe shortage of vaccines all over the country since April. On April 19, the Central government announced a new “liberalised” vaccine policy which allowed everyone over the age of 18 to get a vaccine. As per the policy, however, state governments have to buy vaccines for its younger population between 18-44 years. The companies were allowed to fix the price for vaccines for both state governments and the private sector.

What is the consequence of this kind of policy? Suno India has published a two-part series on this crucial issue.

In the first episode, To understand more, Suno India’s Menaka Rao spoke to professor R Ramakumar. He is from the Centre for Study of Developing Economics in Tata Institute of Social Sciences. He has written extensively about the vaccine policy in several publications.