Get ready to give up your favourite ice cream and frozen desserts for a while. That would be the price you may have to pay for a Covid-19 vaccine.
While the whole world is breath lessly following every single development on the vaccine front, less noticed, though equally crucial, is the ecosystem needed to bring the vaccines from the lab to your arm. Ranging from the immediate requirement of crores of vials, syringes and needles to refrigeration, storage, transportation and delivery of the doses to every citizen, this health emergency is spawning a business potential that even early conservative estimates put at thousands of crores of rupees.
Storing and transporting the vaccine at the requisite temperature would be the most daunting task for India. One solution, as the head of a leading refrigeration company suggests, is drafting in “the cold storage facilities of the likes of Mother Dairy and Amul, and at all the supermarkets.”
The good news is that India already has a Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) in place, which could be used for vaccine delivery. And, the bad news? It is not equipped to handle a vaccination programme of this scale. “Planes, trucks, warehouses and health centres all will have to be outfitted with freezers for the required temperature along with power backups. It’s a gigantic task ahead!” said Balbirsingh Khalsa, national director (industrial & logistics) of the property consultant Knight Frank India.
Denne historien er fra December 13, 2020-utgaven av THE WEEK.
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Denne historien er fra December 13, 2020-utgaven av THE WEEK.
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William Dalrymple goes further back
Indian readers have long known William Dalrymple as the chronicler nonpareil of India in the early years of the British raj. His latest book, The Golden Road, is a striking departure, since it takes him to a period from about the third century BC to the 12th-13th centuries CE.
The bleat from the street
What with all the apps delivering straight to one’s doorstep, the supermarkets, the food halls and even the occasional (super-expensive) pop-up thela (cart) offering the woke from field-to-fork option, the good old veggie-market/mandi has fallen off my regular beat.
Courage and conviction
Justice A.M. Ahmadi's biography by his granddaughter brings out behind-the-scenes tension in the Supreme Court as it dealt with the Babri Masjid demolition case
EPIC ENTERPRISE
Gowri Ramnarayan's translation of Ponniyin Selvan brings a fresh perspective to her grandfather's magnum opus
Upgrade your jeans
If you don’t live in the top four-five northern states of India, winter means little else than a pair of jeans. I live in Mumbai, where only mad people wear jeans throughout the year. High temperatures and extreme levels of humidity ensure we go to work in mulmul salwars, cotton pants, or, if you are lucky like me, wear shorts every day.
Garden by the sea
When Kozhikode beach became a fertile ground for ideas with Manorama Hortus
RECRUITERS SPEAK
Industry requirements and selection criteria of management graduates
MORAL COMPASS
The need to infuse ethics into India's MBA landscape
B-SCHOOLS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT INDIAN ECONOMY IS GOING TO WITNESS A TREMENDOUS GROWTH
INTERVIEW - Prof DEBASHIS CHATTERJEE, director, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
COURSE CORRECTION
India's best b-schools are navigating tumultuous times. Hurdles include lower salaries offered to their graduates and students misusing AI
