Tag: Wuhan virus

Counting the cost of coronavirus outbreak: Why it could hurt the global economy badly

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The latest public health scare to hit the world is the COVID 19 – coronavirus. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there were over 73,000 reported cases of COVID 19, with most of the epidemic contained in one province in China – Hubei. Outside China, there are a shade over 800 cases. According to the European Centre for Disease Control, there have been 2,012 deaths, 2,006 of which are in China.

The term coronavirus is a family of viruses that cause a variety of ailments ranging from the relatively harmless common cold to the more virulent illnesses such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV). The current outbreak is caused by a new type of coronavirus that has hitherto not been detected in humans. Coronaviruses are zoonotic ie, are transmitted between animals and people. For example, Swine flu–transmitted from pigs to humans – or bird flu – between birds and humans; or Ebola – from bats to humans – are all examples of zoonotic infections. According to a paper in the prestigious Chinese Medical Journal, scientists have said that this new coronavirus has been borne by bats to humans.

While it is very infectious and has spread rapidly since December 30, the WHO has been muted in its commentary about the outbreak. Tedros Andhanom – the Director-General of WHO – has said that COVID-19 is not “as deadly as other coronaviruses, including SARS and MERS”. To put it in perspective, there were between 14,000–36,000 deaths due to influenza in the United States, in the four-month period between October 2019 and January 2020. Yet, you don’t see the kind of response that you have with the world reaction to COVID 19. The panic that has been caused by a flu for which there is no vaccine yet has been a virtual quarantining of all activity with travel into or out of China, having severe economic consequences not just for China, but for countries across the world. Moody’s has revised its China GDP growth forecast from 5.8 percent to 5.2 percent — blaming the coronavirus.

At the most basic level, an already troubled airline industry worldwide has been hit by the coronavirus. Airlines across the world have suspended flights to China. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), 62.9 million tourists visited China in 2018, and revenue from tourism accounted for almost 11 percent of the Chinese GDP. This includes the massive Chinese domestic tourism market – estimated to be $650 billion — that is also going to be impacted. Chinese participation in tourism outside China is also expected to decrease.

The second is with much of the Chinese working population being advised to work from home, there has been a massive impact on global supply chains. Many manufacturing units have shut down until the crisis passes. Apple has already indicated that its revenue will fall owing to the outbreak. Vehicle manufacturers who depend on supply parts from China have said that their operations could be impacted by coronavirus. There has been a virtual write-off of all economic activity in China since the beginning of the year, and the two months of disruption to the economy would have a fallout on not just the Chinese economy but those in the region and the world.

Global supply chain is disrupted 

The third major sector to be impacted is pharmaceuticals. Hubei province – the epicentre of the outbreak – is also the province from which most pharmaceutical raw material is produced. It is expected that India that produces 20 percent of the world’s drug supply will be impacted by the virtual shutdown in production. Unless the crisis passes, and people get back to work in China, there will be a major shortfall in bulk drug manufacturing, leading to a spike in prices of basic medicines.

There are those who say that this is a great opportunity for Indian manufacturing replacing Chinese manufacturing in the short run, and maybe even in the long run. However, it is not easy to shift production lines. Besides, with India in a slowdown, and many factories already shut – it might be difficult to even produce what they produced earlier – let alone change tracks and replace Chinese goods in the global supply chain.

The coronavirus will be combatted. Scientists will develop a vaccine. The only question is when, and it is likely to be sooner rather than later. As population spreads across the world become denser, as we migrate from the rural to city life; as tourism spreads – so too will never-seen-before bugs that can disrupt lives, economies, and futures. There will always be a gap between the outbreak of the virus and the finding of the cure. What is required are protocols to prevent panic and economic tsunamis from hitting populations already ravaged by illness.

At one point in time, it was said that if America sneezes, the world catches a cold; the same can be said of China today – its global presence and impact on the world economy is so great that the coronavirus outbreak in the country has infected economies across the globe.

Harini Calamur writes on politics, gender and her areas of interest are the intersection of technology, media, and audiences. Read her columns here.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Coronavirus fallout: Prices of paracetamol, raw materials for key antibiotics soar in India

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Prices of raw materials of key drugs such as paracetamol and antibiotics have seen a spike owing to the Coronavirus outbreak. The viral outbreak that began in China has infected more than 71,000 people globally.

According to industry heads, raw materials of key drugs used to manufacture painkiller paracetamol and common antibiotics such as Azithromycin and Amoxicillin have seen prices spike anywhere between 20 percent to over 50 percent since the outbreak. Prices of paracetamol raw material has moved up to Rs 450 per kg versus Rs 250 kg earlier, Azithromycin has risen to Rs 12,500 per kg versus Rs 7,800 per kg earlier and Amoxicillin prices have moved to Rs 1,800 per kg versus Rs 1,500 per kg earlier, industry sources say.

One of the key reasons for this increase is that many of the starting materials or raw materials to manufacture these drugs are sourced from China. For example, most fermentation-based active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) such as cephalosporin, penicillin and erythromycin are imported from China, with the country being either the largest or the only source globally for these supplies. Wuhan, the capital of Central China’s Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak and a hub for API supplies, has not seen manufacturing restart and supplies from other regions in China are also slow, says the head of an API manufacturing company on condition of anonymity. Supplies from other regions in China are mainly impacted by logistic issues such as slow government clearances.

One of India’s largest manufacturers of paracetamol on condition of anonymity has said shortages have risen. For example, there is currently a 20-30 percent shortage of a key raw material used to manufacture paracetamol. In this case, alternate supplies are unusually tough, according to the company head, as China provides 80 percent of supplies for it. Traders are also taking advantage of the situation and hiking prices of inventory, says Zydus Cadila Chairman Pankaj Patel.

While prices of these key raw materials have surged, the industry doesn’t expect it to filter down to the finished product, as many of these drugs are under price control. Any decision on a hike in prices will have to be taken by the Centre.

Looking for secondary sources

However, the manufacturers remain worried. Most companies currently have inventory for 1 or 2.5 months only. A few have raw materials to meet their needs until Q1FY21 as most companies stocked up on inventory ahead of the Chinese New Year, which is a normal industry practice. But if the current situation lasts beyond April, the raw material shortage will become an issue, Patel noted.

Furthermore, the industry could brace itself for further price hikes. Many companies are already looking for secondary sources of API supplies, buying at higher prices in the spot market and trying to backward integrate as much and as quickly as possible.

While the spike in prices of key raw materials is negative for most pharmaceutical companies, it is an opportunity for some. IOL Chemicals, which manufacturers APIs for pain drug ibuprofen and exports 50 percent of it, says they are receiving more queries from Latin America and countries such as Vietnam. Currently, around 30 percent of global ibuprofen supplies are impacted, as per the company, because one of the key suppliers of ibuprofen API is Hubei Biocause, which is impacted as it is based in Wuhan region.

On the other hand, US-based chemical company BASF is currently facing technical issues and expected to restart supplies only in March. The impact is already seen on ibuprofen API prices. From around $15 the prices have moved up to $18 and expected to rise to $20 as per IOL Chemicals. The company expects its capacity utilization, which is currently at 80 percent, to increase due to the expectant incremental order inflows.

But are incremental supplies an opportunity for the rest of the industry? The likes of Glenmark believe so. In their Q3 earnings conference call, Glenmark said the developments in China are a significant opportunity and it expects flows to come to India from China. Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and Patel also echoed this view, saying that the time is ripe to ramp up API supplies irrespective of the price as the shortage of APIs is a long term opportunity for India if the government offers support.

According to Patel, to combat the present shortage, in the near term the industry must ramp up indigenous API capacity whilst for the long term, fresh investments are imperative.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

How Coronavirus outbreak is fuelling Sinophobia and racism

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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You can leave China but the coronavirus follows you everywhere. At a wedding that I went to recently, there were either a lot of jokes about the coronavirus. Some people took two steps away from me when they heard that I had returned to wait out the epidemic. In my yoga class, a teacher spoke about her friend who went to China saw a monkey’s head being split so that the blood could form a delicate soup. She heard of it, so it must be true of course. People are almost disappointed when they turn to me for confirmation of their biases and I tell them that I have only faced kindness in China.

This week, a friend from Hong Kong was turned away from a hotel in Chennai because they were worried about “panicking their guests”. When I called the hotel, the manager said that his staff had refused to serve anyone from China because they were worried about “health concerns”. After rounds of frustrating conversations, Treebo finally apologised and compensated my friends for their stay. But this is not an isolated incident. On an Indigo flight last week, a traveller refused to sit next to a person from Arunachal Pradesh because they suspected the other of having the coronavirus.

Racist tropes in the media

Around the world, Chinese people are facing xenophobia under the guise of concerns over health. A Norwegian cruise did not allow a Chinese woman aboard even though she had lived in Canada for fifteen years. In Britain, people of Chinese origin have been assaulted and even pelted with eggs. In Italy, which declared a health emergency over the virus has seen a rise in racism with the banning of Chinese people from shops and restaurants. In America, Chinatowns are empty. In Sydney, a man died of a heart attack in Chinatown because bystanders did not perform CPR on him as they were afraid of contracting the disease. In France, the hashtag #JeNeSuisPasUnVirus is trending because of the rise in racist tropes in the media that feed into xenophobia. Across the world, there is a drop in businesses at Chinatowns even prompting Jeremy Corbyn to visit one in a show of solidarity. But it is not enough. This racism has clear roots in Sinophobia and can’t be easily dismissed as panic over a health crisis.

The incident with the hotel in Chennai made me frustrated because I depend on the kindness of friends, and strangers alike when I am in China. From simple to complex tasks, the people I have met in China have only exuded warmth. This week, I was ashamed that we in India, with our values of Athithi Devo Bhava, remain racist against anybody who doesn’t look like a Bollywood cutout. And my friends from Hong Kong? They’re just telling everyone that they’re from Singapore for the rest of their stay here.

Hamsini Hariharan is the host of the States of Anarchy podcast and is currently based in Beijing.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Coronavirus outbreak: All it takes is a virus to divide us

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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On February 14, 1990, the Voyager 1 spacecraft as it was passing Neptune, turned its camera for one last time towards the Earth, the planet of its origin, and snapped a shot. Unlike the Earthrise that had been captured by Apollo, astronauts showing the Earth in glory and beauty, the snap by Voyager was anything but grand. Titled as the “pale blue dot,” the picture showed how almost inconsequential is our existence in this vast cosmos — how fragile and how vulnerable we are. And yes, how fortunate too, in the 4 billion miles between the Earth and the Voyager, there was no other planet where life existed.

The pale-blue dot was a poignant reminder of how humanity was essentially one, despite all its differences of caste, creed, and nationalities, how we were just pale-blue dotters, and not much more.

And exactly three decades later, humanity is facing a global-crisis in terms of an outbreak of influenza virus, and our collective response is anything but a unified one.

Let’s start with the facts first, the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19, has infected over 64,000 people and killed over 1400. A vast majority of those infected and dead are from mainland China, the country where the virus emerged. The infections have taken a pandemic scale, and every day the numbers are spiking. In fact, by the time you read this piece, the numbers would have changed for the worse.

The impacts of the current outbreak are there for all to see. There’s anxiety bordering on panic everywhere. Flights have been cancelled to China, travellers from the country are being quarantined. Passengers of three cruise ships with thousands of passengers are stranded, as there is no country allowing them to disembark. The case with the Diamond Princess cruise is especially sad, where some 3500 passengers and crews are stranded outside the port of Yokohama, Japan.

At the start, only a few of the passengers had tested positive for the novel Coronavirus, COVID-19 infection leading to a forced quarantine by the Japanese authorities. In a matter of fortnight, the number of infected people on-board has increased dramatically, over 200 infected on-board. This has freaked out the passengers that are forced to stay on-board; many of them have been pleading and beseeching authorities to let them off while they are still healthy and unaffected.

In the name of greater good

China is under tremendous pressure to deal with the outbreak. For a country aspiring to be a global power, its inability to deal with the viral epidemic is not merely a loss-of-face globally but also internally. China has so-far painted itself in a picture of grandeur, a country of great resource whose time had come. From the Belt-road initiative across Asia to ports in Srilanka, from railways in Tanzania to launch a communication satellite for Bolivia, China has aspirations, nothing less of a global empire. Not wanting to disturb the apple-cart, Chinese officials downplayed the impact of COVID-19, when the first case was reported on December 1, 2019. Rather than dealing with the medical evidence, the authorities seemed more agile in curbing the news about the instance. Take the case of Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist from Wuhan Central Hospital, who was one of the first to talk about the similarities between the new Coronavirus strain and SARS. The authorities acted quickly, not by examining the linkage, but giving a stern warning to Wenliang for “spreading rumours.”

It took almost a month for China to apprise the World Health Organisation about the new Coronavirus, it was done on December 31, 2019. But by then, the things had gone out of hand.

To control the spread, China has imposed unprecedented restrictions on travel, forcing cities in quarantines — affecting over 170 million people. That’s more than the population of Bangladesh, which happens to be the 8th most populous country on our planet.

A divided planet

Never before have such many people forced to live under isolation. Indeed, back in 2014, at the height of the Ebola outbreak in Africa, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone had imposed a mass quarantine in the vast forest areas. Still, these were sparsely populated, unlike Wuhan or the Hubei province in China. While quarantine is supposedly the best option, its efficacy has not been honestly assessed, especially in this case of COVID-19, when the virus has spread far and wide.

While the origin and the outbreak of the virus are in China, any person living in any part of the planet is at risk. Take the case of British national Steve Walsh, who is dubbed as the “super-spreader” for having infected numerous people, after contracting the virus in Singapore and then travelling to a French ski chalet. By the sheer manner in which our world is interconnected, it’s almost impossible to deal with the outbreak in primitive ways. The only nation that seems safe from the outbreak at the moment is the hermit nation of North Korea, and we will never honestly know.

Rather than uniting for a response, the global community has behaved in a very sectarian way. The first response by the different countries was to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan. Japan, India, the United States, France, Australia, Sri Lanka, Germany, and Thailand were among the first to send in the charters to evacuate. Second, came the isolation, the closing of borders, the imposing of restrictions on travel, and then the mandatory quarantines. This was somewhat similar to the reaction to the Ebola outbreak in 2014, or SARS in 2003.

These measures have only instilled panic and fear and in the lay populace stoking racism and xenophobia. Take the case of a French newspaper, Le Courier Picard, that carried a headline, “yellow alert,” and “yellow peril” in its coverage of the virus outbreak. The Yellow is associated with the pale-color of South Asians, especially Chinese. There are numerous videos on YouTube, where you have people misbehaving with Asian-looking individuals. News reports talk of even Uber drivers are refusing to ferry ”Chinese-named” customers for fear of contracting the disease. And then there are the bizarre and fakes pieces floating on the social media, right from belaboring noodles to stop-buying Chinese goods.

Rather than getting united and dealing with this on a global scale, we are dealing in a fissured manner. Right now, China needs support in terms of food supplies, medications, masks, doctors, but that is not what we are hearing. Indeed, the Chinese administration is haughty and controls with an iron-hand, for it to admit that needs help would be akin to admitting defeat.

Yet, the least we can do is to stand in support of the Chinese. We need to remember when a fire rages, it does not matter whose house it started from, your home is in danger of the fire is not brought in control. This virulent strain of Coronavirus needs to be confronted with bravery and unity. On a global scale, not with a national or regional purview.

In the end, we need to remember; we are not white, brown, or even yellow, people, we are just a bunch of pale-blue dotter living on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. That’s how the Voyager-1 had captured us and that’s how we forever will be.

Shashwat DC is Founder Editor at Sustainabilityzero.com. With deep interest in history, and mythology, he is also a passionate champion of the environment & bio-diversity. Using his keyboard, he highlights issues related to sustainability, ESG, CSR, and sustainable development.

Read Shashwat’s columns here.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

The high cost of ill health: Why we need to declare war on lifestyle diseases

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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With the Wuhan Coronavirus claiming over a 1000 lives, the spotlight of the world is on communicable diseases and preventing their outbreak. A few years earlier, the world’s attention was on Ebola, which claimed over 20,000 lives when it was at its peak in 2014-16. But, the thing about pandemics, be it Ebola or Coronavirus, SARS or H1N1, is that they, because of their virality and risk to the population, get attention, resources and a way of combat and control. Right now, there are thousands of scientists across the world, burning the midnight oil, to find a vaccine for coronavirus.

However, when it comes to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) – cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and others – there isn’t a similar warlike effort to combat and control them.  According to a recent World Bank report, over 38 million people die each year, 16 million of them under the age of 70, because of non-communicable diseases. Furthermore, it has a huge impact on a productive lifestyle for those who survive. Across the world, governments and creaking public health systems have made the tackling of non-communicable and chronic diseases such as heart conditions and diabetes a primary target.

In India, we are seeing people under 40 succumb to heart attacks, be afflicted by paralysis – we see 20-year-olds declared diabetic – and all of these have a cost not just on the individual, but on the economy. While India has traditionally focused on malnutrition, and health issues that are triggered by it – with an increase in income, over the last two decades – lifestyle diseases are catching up. In India, 63 percent of all deaths are due to non-communicable diseases. According to a study in the Lancet, cardiovascular diseases were responsible for 28.1 percent of all deaths, and 14.1 percent of DALY (disability adjusted life years).

Two decades ago, these were all lifestyle diseases afflicting the middle class and the rich. However, with Indians moving up the income ladder, and food habits changing, these lifestyle diseases have percolated from the richer sections of society – where they were more endemic – to all sections of society. With more and more healthcare being made available and paid for by the state the economic burden of these diseases, and the increase in their prevalence, has become an issue to be tackled by policy.

(Source: World Bank data)

At the core of these policy changes is the need to provide primary health care that would enable medical professionals to raise the alarm early enough and begin treatment. However, in many countries including India – the rate at which Primary Health Care (PHC) is growing, and the coverage that it is providing is not fast enough to stem the rise in these diseases. While India is investing in the physical infrastructure of primary health centres, their effectiveness is severely hampered by the sheer numbers of patients, and the massive shortage of trained medical staff. It is estimated that India has 7 doctors per 10,000 people – if we looked at rural India by itself, the number will be much lower. It is estimated that we have a shortfall of 600,000 doctors and 2 million-plus nurses.

At the second level, there needs to be a focus on food habits and nutrition. Even at the turn of the century, lifestyle diseases were primarily an urban and
well-to-do phenomenon. However, that is changing. Obesity is on the rise in rural India and in economically weaker households in urban India. A study last year in Nature looked at the trend of increased body mass index (BMI) in rural areas across the world and found that obesity is on the rise – and with it, all the associated lifestyle diseases. The main reason for this seems to be the move away from natural and traditional foods to processed foods; as well as increased mechanisation of farm work and the availability of transport.

So, while we combat Coronavirus, Ebola, Nipa and other exotic pandemics – it is important for the country as a whole to look at fundamental lifestyle changes that enable better health and living. The prime minister has done his bit on advocating fitness and a healthier lifestyle. However, these initiatives have to go beyond being a photo opportunity, or a social media hashtag – and have a long-term roadmap in terms of health, nutrition, and overall wellness. Just labelling centres as wellness centres is not going to be effective, if they are not followed up with policies that educate patients on a healthy lifestyle. And, those have to be localised, or even hyper localised – because, in a diverse nation like India everything changes in the next locality.

Source : World Health Organisation.

We are on the precipice of a public health disaster. According to the WHO, the cost of non-communicable diseases to the Indian economy in the period 2012-30 is $6.16 trillion. One way of ensuring that we reach the $5 trillion mark as an economy is to make sure that our people are healthier. And, fixing that needs not just Instagram videos and twitter memes, but a focused, planned approach to public health.

Harini Calamur writes on politics, gender and her areas of interest are the intersection of technology, media, and audiences.

Read Harini Calamur’s columns here.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Coronavirus impact: India’s dependence on Chinese APIs may lead to drug price rise, shortage

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The dependence of pharmaceutical companies on China when it comes to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), intermediates and other key starting materials is well documented. As per the USFDA, as of August 2019, up to 13 percent of manufacturing sites for APIs for drugs in the US market are located in China, 18 percent in India and 13 percent in the rest of the world.

While the amount of API manufacturing sites is limited to only 13 percent in China, experts say a bulk of US drugs are linked to API imports from that country. This dependence is either via final drug manufacturers or directly via API suppliers to US drug manufacturers. As per Gary Cohn, a former economic adviser to Donald Trump, China produces 97 percent of antibiotics used in the US.

For India, as of FY19, China accounted for 67 percent of total imports of bulk drugs and intermediates. Heads of pharma companies point out that almost 80 percent of India’s key starting material for the production of cephalosporin, a type of antibiotic, is from China. The supply chain, according to pharma companies, runs deep and is complicated. For example, as Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharma explained on its Q3 earnings conference call, while the company’s formulations business is not so dependent on China, the companies from whom it sources raw materials could have some dependence on Chinese intermediates. So one might think they are buying from India but there is a link to China.

China exports bulk drugs from regions such as Hubei, Jiangsu and Shandong amongst others. However, drug manufacturers and analysts point out that the majority of pharma ingredient production is in the Hubei province which is the capital of Wuhan, the epicentre of the Coronavirus outbreak. In fact, reports point out that 60-70 percent of bulk drugs used to manufacture common antibiotics is from this region. The fear then is that if production stoppage prolongs in regions such as Hubei, the industry will eventually suffer from a spike in prices and possible shortages. But as of now, big pharma companies are not pressing the panic button as they have inventory on an average for 1-3 months. Aurobindo, for example, said their average stock is 2-3 months. Cipla and Lupin too told analysts and investors on their earnings conference call that they have stock available.

Impact on the supply chain

However, the situation is being monitored closely by companies and they fear an impact on the supply chain if the problem persists beyond a few weeks. According to Scott Gottlieb, former USFDA chief, the fear is not just generic drugs facing shortages. Branded drugs use Clinical Research Organisations (CROs) in China and clinical trials could be put on hold. Also, drug firms could see delayed filings on new drugs if they have to shift work outside China.

The next few weeks hence will be crucial, the head of a pharma company said on condition of anonymity. Many Chinese companies are expected to restart operations this week and a gradual ramp-up is expected. Pharma companies with dependence on Chinese APIs are monitoring the situation on a daily basis with their suppliers. Analysts, on the other hand, are not perturbed. While they expect a temporary disruption and spike in prices to impact margins in the near term, they are not changing estimates for the longer term.

While this situation could return to normalcy, the larger picture of dependence on Chinese APIs cannot be ignored and one has to ask if there is an opportunity for India? Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson and CMD of Biocon, who expressed concern that the current situation could extend to 6-9 months, said there is an opportunity for Indian companies to ramp up production to meet the global needs.

Gottlieb also pointed out that unutilised manufacturing capacity can be brought on stream. India has about 1500 API plants which are running at 40 percent capacity and regulators can work closely with the industry too. On the other hand, cost competitiveness has been a problem for Indian API companies. However, according to Shaw, this is not the time to think of prices but focus on production as inventories will soon run out. In fact, the government according to Shaw needs to look at this opportunity and offer support such as the rapid release of credit.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Coronavirus: Death of a whistle-blower doctor in Wuhan an example of courage in bounded spaces

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The death of a doctor from coronavirus in Wuhan has led to the outpouring of public grief on Chinese social media.

Li Wenliang, a doctor who was disciplined for trying to tell his school friends about the coronavirus in January died from the same disease last week. His death has led to a flood of solidarity across Chinese social media for the whistle-blower who did not set out to be one.

The ophthalmologist who worked in Wuhan Central hospital was one of eight people who were “reprimanded” for spreading rumours about the virus in early January. He was admonishmed for posting patients who exhibited similar symptoms at the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in a group of former classmates. However, he continued his work in the hospital until his own tests came back positive for the virus. His death was first announced by state media, then redacted and finally released after Wuhan Central Hospital officially announced it on February 7.

Within hours, hashtags such as “Wuhan Government Owes Li an Apology”, “I Want Freedom of Speech” and “Can you manage? Do you understand?” went viral on Chinese twitter. The last is a reference to the statement that Li Wenliang was forced to sign by the Wuhan Police when disciplined for disturbing public order. But these hashtags have disappeared from wechat and weibo with innumerable accounts suspended. In a country where over a billion people use mobile payments, the suspension of such services, particularly in crimes of crises is not a mere inconvenience.

Lapse of local officials 

On the other hand, the Central government has pointed out that this is a lapse of the local officials. The State Administration announced that a team was dispatched to enquire into Li Wenliang’s death. The editor-in-chief of the Global Times, Hu Xijin wrote a post on Weibo asking local officials to apologise for their mistakes. If Li Wenliang is too big to be censored then it is possible that he will be co-opted into the official narrative.

The Global Times also published a piece alleging that “Hong Kong and anti-China groups were enlisting people to help sensationalise the story on Chinese social media in efforts to spread negative publicity on the mainland and incite the so-called democratic movement.” To be fair, it is precipitous to overstate the public grief as translating into anything else politically or socially.

An interview of Li’s, published when he was still sick, revealed that he was paying for treatment by himself, and that he hoped to go back to the frontlines after recovering. The reason he is mourned this week is because his simple gesture of caring for people became an act of protest.

Li is not the first symbol of the common man in China being a conscientious citizen and being penalised for it. During the 2003 SARS epidemic, a military doctor named Jiang Yanyong wrote to Chinese media revealing the extent of the virus. The news was leaked to Western media and finally it broke through public consciousness, forcing the government to reveal the scale of the disease. Recent reports allege that he remains under house arrest for a letter he wrote to the government about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

The difference between the two men is that Jiang Yanyong actively did his duty by blowing the whistle on the epidemic while Li Wenliang was only speaking on a semi-public space. But both are examples of courage in bounded spaces.

If in a democracy like India, people are being arrested on account of sedition for staging plays, raising slogans at peaceful protests and writing open letters, then that space is even more limited in China. That is why it is more important than ever to remember Li Wenliang, his powerful gesture and his simple words: “A healthy society has more than one voice.”

Hamsini Hariharan is the host of the States of Anarchy podcast and is currently based in Beijing.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow