[sinyug]

> Nobody in India would have grudged if the government gave them some public money to do so!

Well, somebody would have. People are complaining about states being charged $4-5/dose while foreign vaccines are being sold for up to $30/dose.

Also, according to this report,[1] Adar Poonawalla of SII has fled to London with his family because he is being intimidated by prominent people (including many Chief Ministers) and has also been receiving death threats.

This is what happens to the private sector in India.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLEDQ7FtXus

[webmobdev]

   Adar Poonawalla of SII has fled to London with his family because he is being intimidated by prominent people (including many Chief Ministers)

Again, a side-effect of the flawed vaccine policy of the government.

So far, the central government was directly procuring the vaccine, and distributing it to everyone. Last month, it suddenly changed the policy and told all the states to procure it themselves. This has resulted in differential pricing, and the all the states are now forced to negotiate and procure the vaccines from the manufacturers directly. So all the politicians are now harassing the CEO of the vaccine manufacturers for better deals .. https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/serum-chief-flies-to-uk... ...

Luckily the Supreme Court has stepped in and is now questioning the government on its revised vaccine policy, especially on the pricing mechanism.

[sinyug]

> Again, a side-effect of the flawed vaccine policy of the government.

Was very predictable. Center was acquiring vaccines and distributing it among states who were then vaccinating vulnerable sections of the population. Politicians started questioning the policy and demanded more control. Once the Center gave them that control, all hell broke loose.

I can guarantee that this abuse will continue and Ella will be next. The media is 100% responsible for targeting these companies over everything from patents to pricing. And while Modi managed to deflect criticism and dump the issue into the hands of clueless state governments, it is going to hurt India very badly.

> Luckily the Supreme Court has stepped in and is now questioning the government on its revised vaccine policy, especially on the pricing mechanism.

Nothing good will come out of it. The SC is not answerable to the people as it is not a democratically elected body. And it does not have executive experience either. I don't know why all these courts keep interfering in every single issue all the time.

[webmobdev]

    Politicians started questioning the policy and demanded more control. 

Let's consider the criticism for the vaccine policy by the opposition:

- Vaccine makers were requesting government grants to expand facilities but were provided limited to no resource till last month.

- Exporting vaccines was made a priority over vaccinating indians.

- When indians realised there was a shortage of vaccine and started highlighting these issues, and the government realised that it wouldn't be able to meet the vaccine demands, they suddenly do a complete U-turn of their vaccine policy - the centre backs out completely out of price-fixing and procurement of vaccines without setting any framework in place.

- Thus, completely abdicating their responsibility, they now expect each state government to haggle and negotiate the price directly, draw up individual contracts and get the vaccines.

The opposition did their job in highlighting the deficiencies. Instead of listening and fixing the issues, the government deliberately passed the buck to the state government with a revised policy. It is clear they did it in such a manner (without any framework) so that they could transfer any associated political blame.

    The SC is not answerable to the people ... it does not have executive experience either.

Agreed that courts should be quite careful. But, in general, good judges don't make decisions arbitrarily. They listen to the executive, they listen to the critics, they listen to the state governments, and they also listen to the experts.

That said, some stupid executive decisions can be over ruled with common sense and some have past precedents to follow. For example, it is very stupid to make people register for a vaccine - poor and uneducated people will not be able to do so and will be susceptible to corruption due to this unnecessary step. Common sense. We have one of the largest successful immunisation programs in the world and have successfully vaccinated a large number of people in the past. So we have past precedents on how to vaccinate our people. The vaccines should be free for everyone - common sense and past precedent. And so on.