Addressing a press conference, senior spokesperson of the Congress Ajay Maken said with over 2.93 lakh COVID cases in a 24-hour span, the government is testing the patience of people instead of coronavirus positive patients. The world’s largest vaccine maker, Serum Institute of India (SII), has sought Rs 3,000 crore grant from the government to ramp up capacity of the Covishield Covid-19 vaccine beyond 100 million doses a month that it will reach by the end of May. SII’s capacity ramp-up is critical since the government has already used up 8 crore vaccines so far and, at the current pace of 4-mn a day, has just enough supplies for another five days. At this moment in India where states are facing vaccines shortages, there should rather be a concoction of efforts of the government and concerned authorities like SII. Both SII and Bharat Biotech make 25 lakh doses daily while last week on an average we were using 31 lakh doses daily. Even at our current speed of countrywise vaccination we...
China’s economy strengthened in the first quarter of this year as consumer spending rose more than expected, putting it on course to join the US as twin engines for a global recovery in 2021. GDP rose 18.3% in the first quarter from a year earlier, largely in line with the 18.5% marking the highest increase since China began to publish quarterly data in 1992. Though that record-breaking figure was mainly due to comparisons with a year ago when much of the economy was shut due to coronavirus. Retail sales beat expectations while industrial output growth moderated. The recovery last year was led by strong investment in real estate and infrastructure spurring demand for industrial goods, while overseas orders for medical goods and electronic devices fuelled exports. The economy was also boosted by a jump in investment from overseas. Markets were choppy following the data release but ended the day little changed, with the benchmark CSI 300 Index paring an earlier loss of as much as 0.6% to...