Vaccinating India for Covid
India, despite being the world’s largest vaccine manufacturing country, has become a central focus of discussion globally on the planning, pricing and procurement strategies of Covid-19 vaccine. India’s self-reliant and planned vaccination campaign went into disarray when the country was hit by the deadly second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. With the alarming level of spread of the virus and its severity, the need to vaccinate all its citizens with at least one dose became an absolute necessity. Despite of a promising initial start in January, the urgent rollout of vaccines for everyone above 18 years amidst the second wave, created its own unprecedented challenges. Even after 6 months of the world’s largest vaccination campaign, India has only vaccinated 4% of its population fully. Questions have been raised about vaccination planning strategies, demand and supply mismatch, pricing and procurement policies, and vaccine inequity.
The case can be used to assist in the teaching of courses such as Managerial Economics and Microeconomics for Public Policy. The learning objectives are to help participants understand:
- The decision-making process, its key drivers, the strategies, and the challenges involved in a public program of the country, especially during uncertainties such as pandemic, natural disasters and recession.
- The factors affecting demand and supply and dynamics of market mechanism.
- The importance of pricing in determining the demand and supply of a good.
- The planning strategies to develop and the precautionary measures to be undertaken keeping the market mechanism in mind.
The role of Central and State governments and private sector in the critical programmes such as vaccination.
Vaccinating India for Covid
India, despite being the world’s largest vaccine manufacturing country, has become a central focus of discussion globally on the planning, pricing and procurement strategies of Covid-19 vaccine. India’s self-reliant and planned vaccination campaign went into disarray when the country was hit by the deadly second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. With the alarming level of spread of the virus and its severity, the need to vaccinate all its citizens with at least one dose became an absolute necessity. Despite of a promising initial start in January, the urgent rollout of vaccines for everyone above 18 years amidst the second wave, created its own unprecedented challenges. Even after 6 months of the world’s largest vaccination campaign, India has only vaccinated 4% of its population fully. Questions have been raised about vaccination planning strategies, demand and supply mismatch, pricing and procurement policies, and vaccine inequity.
The case can be used to assist in the teaching of courses such as Managerial Economics and Microeconomics for Public Policy. The learning objectives are to help participants understand:
- The decision-making process, its key drivers, the strategies, and the challenges involved in a public program of the country, especially during uncertainties such as pandemic, natural disasters and recession.
- The factors affecting demand and supply and dynamics of market mechanism.
- The importance of pricing in determining the demand and supply of a good.
- The planning strategies to develop and the precautionary measures to be undertaken keeping the market mechanism in mind.
The role of Central and State governments and private sector in the critical programmes such as vaccination.
