Best of BS Opinion: Covid-19 vaccine race, Congress's confusion, and more

Here's a selection of Business Standard opinion pieces for the day

India and China have come to yet another agreement to respect the Line of Actual Control and a “phased and stepwise de-escalation” but the uneasy feeling remains: when and where will the next transgression occur? Are the Indian military, intelligence and diplomatic set-ups prepared to detect or avoid another confrontation? The country can scarcely afford such alarums and incursions when the battle against Covid-19 is far from over, as the opinion page reflects today. Kanika Datta sums up the views.

The Indian Council of Medical Research’s letter announcing a crashed deadline for the Covid-19 vaccine has the medical community up in arms. Former Cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar retells a cautionary story of the deadly fallout of a similar warp speed effort in the US to develop the Swine Flu vaccine. Read it here

India is nearing global leadership in terms of the number of Covid-19 cases pointing to a systemic shortfall in healthcare and testing. But the rapid expansion of facilities and medical equipment manufacture offers the country an opportunity to build on and augment its fight against the pandemic, says the first edit. Read it here

Pradipta Bagchi examines the impact of the pandemic on sports. Read it here

The second edit argues that by making personal attacks on Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi is harming the interests of the Congress party and inadvertently turning it into the prime minister’s biggest political asset. Read here

QUOTE OF THE DAY

‘[India and China] re-affirmed that both sides should strictly respect and observe the LAC and should not take any unilateral action to alter the status quo and work together to avoid any incident in the future that could disturb peace and tranquility in border areas’

Ministry of External Affairs statement on the agreement between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.