India’s Covid vaccinations hit 2 billion

THE Indian government’s Covid-19 vaccinations hit 2 billion on Sunday (17), with booster doses underway for all adults, as daily infections hit fourmonth high, official data showed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi extolled the vaccination milestone, celebrating the world’s largest and longest-running inoculation campaign, which began last year.

‘India creates history again!’ Modi said in a tweet. The prime minister has faced allegations from the opposition of mishandling the pandemic that experts claim killed millions. The government rejects the claims.

Health ministry data shows the Covid death toll at 525,709, with 49 deaths recorded overnight.

New cases rose 20,528 over the past 24 hours, the highest since Feb. 20, according to data.

Now, India is running a free booster campaign.

Farmers planted summer-sown crops on 59.2 million hectares, as of July 15, slightly higher than 59.1 million hectares a year ago, according to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare. Crop sowing was down 9.3 percent until last week.

The planting of summer-sown crops takes place in the monsoon months of June and July, while harvesting starts in October.

Except North India, most parts of the country have received above-normal rainfall so far this month, and that has accelerated planting, said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trading house.

India has received 13 percent more rainfall than normal since the start of monsoon season on June 1, but some rice-growing states such as West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have received below-normal monsoons, the weather department data showed.

About 12.85 million hectares had been planted with rice, down 17 percent from a year-ago period, the ministry said.