I saw administration from quite close as leading the efforts and implementing it on ground. First wave was totally administered from center so we had pretty smooth journey. Second wave state had more administrative say and we all know result.
Only one example I will share oxygen.
last wave total industrial shut down was implemented on ground. All oxygen supply was to hospitals.
This time industry were shut down on paper and everything was running on ground.
we all know how we managed getting cylinders filled. We would be on road at middle of night at 2-3 am searching for oxygen refilling. Own vendor would give 5 due to rationing. And we would be needing 35-40 refilled to sustain our sanctioned load of patients. And I dealt with same collector both waves.
what we could do rather than stopping admission. One oxygen patient would disturb oxygen demand of all admitted patients.
Had it been central administration ,all this would have been avoided.
Hmm. So I guess you are aware of the fact that the first order of 1.55-1.65 crore vaccines was first placed in mid January 2021 right?
SII had done the tech and knowledge transfer from Astrazeneca in the middle of last year even before it was approved.
Source-
www.astrazeneca.com
Now look at US and the amounts they paid out starting mid last year for the vaccines in Operation Warp Speed.
Source-
Here's how it compares to other major federal programs
time.com
We are poor and hence we cannot bet on 6 horses at the same time but if you tell me that we couldn't place our bet on even one horse then I will tell you that our incompetence knows no bounds.
On top of that if the govt. had said last year that this 50/50 centre/state arrangement will be set up then at least some of the states would have placed their own orders.
Maharashtra has a budget of 33k crores for BMC alone. They sure could have afforded that.
I am not pissed off about the medical infrastructure and Oxygen issues in India as frankly that kind of investment needs a long term strategy but this vaccination screwup is squarely on the Centre.
Furthermore just read about how horribly the COVAXIN situation was handled.
Many believe that the hastened approval of Covaxin hurt the reputation of the Make-in-India campaign, instead of bolstering it
www.livemint.com
This is just another reminder of event/image management over proper governance just like you are doing with these anecdotes for scenarios which were allowed to happen in the first place. Who pushed for elections and Kumbh Mela this time?
We are the only country in the world who is going with go-as-you-like when it comes to state-level vaccination procurement.
Now if we get into a war with China I fully expect Centre to ask the states for half of the tanks and fighters.
As for UPA I would remind you that we are chitchatting about tech on Indian sites because Manmohan had the long term vision to liberalize India.
Remember 2008 recession which didn't hit us much at all? Why do you think that is the case?
Congress is a gang of thieves but at least they are educated enough to know that its better to allow subject matter experts to manage the system which they don't have much knowledge in.
This kind of hubris that feeds off on surrounding oneself with yes men is only the product of something Bengalis say "Alpo vidya Bhayankari" i.e. half arsed education/knowledge is dangerous.
I know this is a long post but I don't expect a logical answer from you based on your past posts. At most a rabid one-liner is what we can expect.