# Nasal vaccines, a positive shift?An intranasal Covid-19 vaccine will bring about a ‘big positive shift’ in the fight against the pandemic by making the Covid vaccination programme easier and more effective, according to experts.

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has completed the clinical development of its intranasal vaccine and submitted data from Phase III clinical trials for approval to the National regulatory authorities. A response is awaited.

# Dolo deals with the dark side of success: Drugmaker Micro Labs has sought to clear the air on Dolo, its paracetamol brand, which became immensely popular during the peak of Covid-19. Dolo presently finds itself in the eye of a storm involving allegations of freebies and unethical drug promotions to the medical community.

# Boosters pace steps up: On July 15th, the Health Ministry began a 75-day drive to administer booster doses for people above 18, for free. Since then, the pace of booster administration has picked up speed in the country, with daily booster jabs increasing more than five-fold.

# Wading through Covid:Sundaram Mutual had moved a few ranks up in terms of assets under management (AMU) with the acquisition of Principal Asset Management Company after successfully wading through the Covid impact. The fund house now has an average AMU of about ₹40,000 crore as of June quarter.

# Self-reliance on sea containers:In a significant move, three union ministers – of shipping, railway and chemical and fertilisers – last week discussed matters to make India self-sufficient in sea container production.The trade is heavily dependent on China.

India’s trade suffered enormously due to container shortage starting in 2020 end due to Covid-related lockdown followed by Suez Canal blockade by a container ship in March 2021 leading to severe congestion at the ports of Europe and the US. This led to a container shortage, which was aggravated by the Ukraine war.

# JAM leveraged:The JAM trinity was further leveraged by the government to mitigate the impact of the Covid pandemic through immediate Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to rural households under Gareeb Kalyan Yojana, stimulus package under the AtmaNirbhar package, loans to MSMEs, etc.

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