Category: Social

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Indian Govt Please Fix The Software Glitch In Covid Vaccine Certification.

Posted on by veeskitchen

I used my Aadhar ID proof for my first dose of Covishield vaccine at a private hospital in Chennai. The certificate was downloadable from Aarogyasetu, the Indian govt app for Covid and also from Cowin website. My beneficiary ID was mentioned in the certificate alongwith my ID proof. Authentication was enabled with QR code scanning.

For my second dose, the hospital informed me that due to some technical glitch, my first used ID would be inadmissible. I was asked to submit a different ID proof. So I presented my Voter ID for final dose upon which I received an SMS alert that I was fully vaccinated with link for download. The latest and final dose vaccine proof certificate was also downloadable from Aaroyasetu apart from Cowin website as earlier. The only problem was that, in my first certificate, as per my Aadhar proof my name is complete with surname. In the second one, the beneficiary ID was different and the name of the vaccinated reflected my first name only without surname, based on my voter ID submitted. (Voter IDs generally give our first names and surnames separately)

Now there seems to be conflict between the two certificates as both mention two different IDs and beneficiaries. Year of birth however is the same although no complete date of birth is mentioned. Also the second and conclusive vaccination certificate proof carries my name without my surname as I have stated earlier. The regular ID most of us use is Aadhar. Voter ID or PAN Card or Driving Licence (DL) or even Passport are mostly viewed as supplementary IDs while Aadhar is mandatory everywhere. I am at a fix now therefore. Does this mean that I have to carry my voter ID as citizenship proof for my foreign travels to flash to the airlines or foreign immigrations. Normally I carry always my Aadhar ID. My passport name and my Aadhar name are identical whereas my voter ID drops my surname. How to prove to anyone that these are all my concrete ID proofs. Variation with my passport ID is a headache.

Hopefully Govt of India fixes this software glitch soon as I understand more number of the vaccinated are concerned about this conflicting certification. A friend who used same Aadhar ID for both doses says she received certification for the final dose that mentioned it as first dose once again.

Covid vaccine certification is going to play a big role in Medical Insurance/Health Insurance settlements in future. Therefore diligent care needs to be taken in certification with proper ID reference and beneficiary ID created for the purpose. One single ID must be taken into cognizance for both doses.

In my case, I wonder if it will be possible for me to correlate both the certificates. Can we add our Aadhar ID proof as well to the final certificate. After all this is digital certification. There must be someway to relate both certificates conclusively.

Lots of confusions persist.

Mostly those who are not concerned with foreign travel have not much to complain. In India, all ID proofs are valid generally.

But those of us who may need to travel abroad in future are now concerned as any name mismatching can put us into trouble leading to unnecessary quarantine procedures despite our vaccination. In short, the discrepancy can invalidate our vaccine certification.

I hope everyone pays attention to this vital info.

For second dose of your covid vaccine, please take a different ID compared to your first submitted ID. I suggest we can consider our passport ID for this purpose if we have travel in mind. Please do not present any ID that will be in conflict with your passport ID (for the final dose). As the final ID is what will reflect in our final vaccine certification, it will be prudent to present our passport ID for the second dose.

How to differentiate between the first and final dose vaccine certificates in India: The first dose certificate mentions the date for the second dose vaccination. If there is no such data in your certificate, then it must be the final certificate.

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Covishield Dose 1 – Done!

Posted on by veeskitchen

Took my first shot of Covishield, the corona vaccine made in India proudly today. Very neatly streamlined procedure. Our ID proof is mandatory as India is taking count of the vaccinated lot. I guess a certificate to the effect will be issued after the second dose to be administered after a gap of 28 days.

My husband called me from abroad to say, India made vaccines are not recognized in Middle East. I said, India exports corona vaccines to dozens of countries worldwide.

Medical studies suggest, India made Covishield (for Astrazeneca/Oxford) may be better than that marketed by the pharma giant Pfizer which is many multiple times more expensive than India vaccines.

Further 100% local India made Covaxin by Bharat Biotech, is reportedly rated the best as it is live vaccine. Hesitancy is therefore for this reason. However, our prime minister Shri Narendra Modi ji bravely opted for desi manufacture Covaxin silencing critics in one stroke.

Looks like the US is coming up with Johnson & Johnson or whatever that it touts to be the best. India is supplying vaccines free to many poor nations. India has also captured a sizeable chunk of world market for covid 19 vaccines. China made corona vaccines may be hardly reliable. (J & J vaccine may be made in India as well, truly mine is the Vaccine capital of the world!)

Countries where Pfizer vaccines are dumped naturally have ruled out India made vaccines coming at fraction of a cost compared to very, very expensive Pfizer vaccine. They have to clear their accumulated heaps first which need cold storage at -70 degree C at a very steep cost. Whereas India made vaccines can be preserved like any other normal vaccine in use so far at 2 to 8 C. Easy transport, storage and administration.

PM Shri Narendra Modi takes Covaxin vaccine, Made-in-India

West will do whatever it can in this price war to thwart India. They are losing in a big way to India here in this pharmaceutical battle.

Blue shade indicates India made Covid 19 vaccine receiving countries

Hats off to PM Shri Narendra Modi ji for making available the local made Covishield as well as Covaxin FREE to Indian public through government hospitals and primary health centers around the nation in such a short span of time. I am talking about 1.3 billion population here. In private hospitals, the vaccine costs a mere Rs.250/- (approx US$ 3/-) Even as war clouds have been threatening nations for decades, what a wonderful peacetime initiative by India doing a quiet, commendable job. Brazil, Canada, Australia, Bangladesh etc are a mere handful of nations that have opted for the Indian manufacture Covid 19 vaccine.

I said NO to Pfizer and opted for India made Covishield. Covaxin is not yet available everywhere. Looking forward to a corona free world in near future… (Pfizer not marketed in India naturally).

Over three hours since I took the jab, so far no symptoms unlike as reported in Pfizer cases. Touchwood!

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Sabarimala Is Indication Why Research Will Never Take off in India

Posted on by veeskitchen

“Sometimes it takes your Heart a little longer to accept

What your Mind already knows….”

Can India risk losing valuable man hours debating issues like Sabarimala. Hindus are the most literate lot in India anyday and this is the case with the best educated in the nation. Alternate views not welcome, dogged and rigid persistence with values of bygone centuries, and dogmas inapplicable and impractical in the modern 21st century not allowed to be questioned. In this environment, how can research ever be conducive in India. What is the value edition of these worthless protest campaigns. How many of those who talk big in social media have actually teenage daughters or daughters who will be ruling the corporate world in near future.

All it takes is, daughters to be born in the family, widows in the family, divorced women in the family, the abused and the bruised – to revise our views on Shastras and Sampradayas.

For instance, how do you define the so-called ‘Karpu’ the supposedly most revered virtue of a Tamil Hindu woman.  How do you define the ‘karpu’ of divorcee Hindu women, who may be innocent divorcees. How do you define the karpu of the Hindu women who are taking a second shot at life, remarrying on divorce or widowhood. Don’t these women have karpu.

Karpu made sense for millennia, but has lost relevance ever since women in India are on equal footing with men in every arena of social development. It is not a stigma on women to even cremate the dead these days. Hindu women have come a long way.

This is why I keep out of debates on Karpu or never share in social media anything on karpu. Some of us have friends and relatives who are once or even twice divorced – innocent divorcees. There are children borne out of second marriages. We Hindu women today are violating the most basic shastra-sampradaya called the institution of marriage with the help of law, when it becomes inevitable. Should we even be debating Sabarimala now.

Most Hindus suffer from selective amnesia. Barely a century ago, Hindu women in Kerala mostly went topless. Maximum, a small blouse even some 40-50 years back. How many Kerala Aiyappa bhaktas can allow their women to go topless in present times. Don’t we change with times.

Antagonism to new ideas, unwillingness to give up inexplicable dogmas will forever keep research in unfavourable climate in India. Voice of the dissent is suppressed by mass hysteria movements. More taboos were broken under the British. In Independent India, strangely, it is lot tougher to bring in social reforms. Emotions and prejudice must not be allowed to cloud rationality and judgement.

If 1000 fools jump into a well, should we also jump in without thinking twice. Numbers should not be allowed to deceive our sixth sense of reasoning.

Hindu Dharma is not an organized religion like Christianity or Islam. Sanathana Dharma literally translates to ‘Free Will.’Which is more so reason for us to go flexible and adapt ourselves to changing times and situations.

Either that, or we have to keep our women 24 hours behind doors, not educating them or allowing them to earn a living. That truly is Hindu sampradaya!

Let us women refuse our rightful inheritance as equal legal heirs in landed estates. That is Hindu custom.

Clamping down on progress, ridiculing the logical, and persisting with legalizing and sustaining a totally unacceptable and dated notion, double mind in stepping out of conventional comfort zone will not take India anywhere. I am closing down further topics on Sabarimala because it must not take any more of our time. Sanathana Dharma is not single edition. If you have your version, I hold mine custom-made.

Research necessitates lots of questions to be asked. The old theories have to fall flat at times as new dimensions emerge. That is how world has come this far. From the days of Galileo and Copernicus. Sabarimala is one good reason why Research will always be a casualty in India and why the ‘India growth story’ will never take us beyond TV news bulletins. The tangible realizable development will record ZILCH.

Without unlocking doors, without feeding our curiosity, without questioning, we will forever be the CLERK GRADE.  Innovations will be impossible. Are we Indians made-to-order to be subservient. That is why India will produce more Sundar Pitchais and Satya Nadellas but never a single Steve Jobs or Elon Musk.

That the most literates in India are the ones stalling imagination and diversification and growth is the most worrying aspect.

PS:

Updated: October 7, 2018

Kerala Court has ruled now that supporting the ideology of a ‘ dreaded world terror organization’ is not illegal. Let us get enraged for right reasons. Let law demarcate the line between what is lawful and what is illegal or criminal. When we lose focus squandering our energy on resources on trivial issues like Sabarimala which are nothing but a phase  of evolutio, we will lose perspective and struggle to fight the real battles – as a community, as a nation.