Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Boris Johnson on Tuesday adopted an ambitious Roadmap 2030 for elevating India-UK ties to a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”.

The two countries also launched an “Enhanced Trade Partnership” (ETP) to unleash the trade potential between the fifth and sixth largest economies of the world and by setting an ambitious target of more than doubling bilateral trade by 2030. The two leaders held a virtual summit on Tuesday and exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest, including cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and G7. They reiterated commitment to climate action to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and agreed to closely engage in the run-up to CoP26 hosted by the UK later this year.

The two leaders discussed the Covid-19 situation and ongoing cooperation in the fight against the pandemic, including the successful partnership on vaccines.

A PMO release said that an ambitious ‘Roadmap 2030’ was adopted at the summit to elevate bilateral ties to a ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’. The roadmap will pave the way for a deeper and stronger engagement over the next ten years in the key areas of people-to-people contacts, trade and economy, defence and security, climate action, and health.

It said the two countries agreed on a roadmap to negotiate a comprehensive and balanced FTA, including consideration of an interim trade agreement for delivering early gains.

“The two Prime Ministers launched an ‘Enhanced Trade Partnership’ (ETP) to unleash the trade potential between the 5th and 6th largest economies of the world and by setting an ambitious target of more than doubling bilateral trade by 2030. As part of the ETP, India and the UK agreed on a roadmap to negotiate a comprehensive and balanced FTA, including consideration of an Interim Trade Agreement for delivering early gains. The enhanced trade partnership between India and UK will generate several thousands of direct and indirect jobs in both the countries,” the release said.

It said that the UK is India’s second largest partner in research and innovation collaborations.

A new India-UK ‘Global Innovation Partnership’ was announced at the virtual summit which aims to support the transfer of inclusive Indian innovations to select developing countries, starting with Africa.

Both sides agreed to enhance cooperation on new and emerging technologies, including Digital and ICT products, and work on supply chain resilience. They also agreed to strengthen defence and security ties, including in the maritime, counter-terrorism and cyberspace domains.

India and the UK launched a comprehensive partnership on migration and mobility that will facilitate greater opportunities for the mobility of students and professionals between the two countries.

The release said that PM Modi thanked PM Johnson for the prompt medical assistance provided by the UK in the wake of the severe second wave of Covid-19 in India.

PM Johnson appreciated India’s role in extending assistance to the UK and other countries over the last year, including by way of supply of pharmaceuticals and vaccines.

PM Modi expressed his desire to be able to welcome PM Johnson in India as per his convenience after the situation stabilizes. The British Prime Minister Johnson also reiterated his invitation to PM Modi to visit UK for the G-7 Summit.

Mumbai’s first drive-in vaccination centre started operations on Tuesday. The multi-storey Kohinoor parking lot on JK Sawant Marg, near Shivaji Park in Dadar West, which has been turned into a vaccination centre, offers a drive-in facility to senior citizens and specially-abled citizens.

Kiran Dighavkar, Assistant Commissioner of the G/North ward with jurisdiction over the area, said, “The facility has the capacity to inoculate 5,000 beneficiaries per day across seven booths. Two of these booths are reserved for drive-ins.”

The parking lot has enough space for 60 to 70 vehicles to queue up for the two booths, said Dighavkar. An estimated 200 people would be able to drive in for their shots at the facility. A registration stall will also be set up, but beneficiaries will be registered by staff at the centre as they wait in the queue.

As Mumbai received its first drive-in centre, other vaccination centres in Maharashtra saw chaos. Crowding outside a vaccination centre in Beed was reported. Several districts in Maharashtra are witnessing vaccine shortage which has also resulted in major inconvenience and protests by agitated public.

According to reports, a man with low oxygen levels was turned back by a clinic in Osmanabad and told to go to a bigger hospital as the clinic did not have oxygen supply. Gasping for breath, the man fell down outside the clinic and his body remained there for three hours until civic body workers picked up his mortal remains.

The Maharashtra government has requested the Centre to increase its current oxygen supply by 200 MT as demand rises. Chief Secretary Sitaram Kunte has written to Union Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, urging him to pay personal attention to the immediate supply of oxygen to the state from nearby and other convenient locations.

The Maharashtra government, on Tuesday, set up a three-member committee headed by a senior IAS officer to probe former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh. This comes after Acting Director General of Police (DGP) Sanjay Pandey decided to recuse himself from the probe, asking for the case to be assigned to someone else.

Pandey’s move came days after Singh alleged that the former had allegedly offered to mediate between him and the state government.

Singh had called Pandey and recorded the conversation in which Pandey allegedly made his offer. He attached the transcript of the conversation with Pandey in his petition filed last week in the Bombay High Court against the government’s decision to hold two probes against him.

The decision to conduct these inquiries by a committee led by a senior IAS officer was taken at the meeting on Monday. It is important as the High Court has slated the hearing on Singh’s petition for 4 May.

Last month, an FIR was filed by Maharashtra Police against the former Mumbai CP as well as DCP Parag Manare and 31 other police officials based on a complaint by Police Inspector Bhimrao Ghadge. Ghadge had made a series of allegations related to corruption against Param Bir Singh during the period where he was posted in the Thane Commissionerate under him. He had also alleged that after he refused to follow Singh’s instructions, 5 FIRs were registered against him and he was suspended. The Anti Corruption Bureau too is looking to investigate the allegations.

The unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases and mortality has overwhelmed the health infrastructure of several States and Union Territories. The global community, in a bid to help India during the crisis,  has extended a helping hand in supporting the efforts of the Government of India in this collective fight against the global Covid-19 pandemic by providing medical equipment, medicines, oxygen concentrators, and ventilators among other necessities. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, a streamlined and systematic mechanism for allocation of the support supplies received by India has been put into place, for effective distribution of the medical and other relief and support material.

As per an official release, the Indian Customs is sensitive to the need for availability of Covid-related imports including Oxygen and Oxygen related equipment, and is working 24 x 7 to fast track and clear the goods on arrival and lead to expeditious clearance within hours.

“The steps taken for expeditious clearance on fast track basis are as follows: The goods are given high priority for clearance by the Customs Systems for processing over other goods. Nodal officers also get alert on email for monitoring and clearance. Monitoring by senior officers for pendency of COVID related imports is also being undertaken. The handholding to the trade is given for complying with the requirements beforehand. Outreach activities and helpdesk enables trade to get the goods cleared on arrival,” it said.

“When imported free of cost and distributed freely, based on the state government certification, IGST is also waived. Further, for the import of oxygen concentrators for personal use, IGST has been reduced from 28 per cent to 12 per cent,” it states.

Union Health Ministry has created a cell under Additional Secretary [Health], MoHFW to coordinate the receipt and allocation of foreign COVID relief material as grants, aid and donations.

“The materials are being given by countries due to the immediate and urgent requirements in different parts of the country. This help is over and above what the Government of India is already providing, and is thus additionality for the states and UTs. Later on, supplies coming from private companies, and entities also started routing through the NitiAyog and are handled by this cell,” an official media release said.

Apart from this, MoHFW said a high-level committee under CEO, NITI Aayog and comprising Secretary Expenditure, MEA and officials of Niti Aayog and MoHFW has also been formed to oversee the whole operation.

The Ministry of External Affairs is the nodal agency for channeling offers of help from foreign countries and coordinates with missions abroad.

Ministry said that for all consignments received via MEA and coming as donations from foreign countries, the consignee is the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS).

“Upon receipt of the papers outlined in the process flow chart, IRCS issues the necessary certificates immediately to HLL for processing customs and regulatory clearances at Airports. IRCS also ensures liaison with MoHFW and HLL so that delays are reduced and quick turnarounds are achieved,” it stated.

“Accessibility and the immediate use of resources to save lives drive the need for immediate allocation of short-notice incoming consignments. The materials from abroad are currently coming in different numbers, specifications and at different times. Hence there is a need to reconcile the distribution logistics with the need to reach the materials as expeditiously as possible to the states. Donor countries consignment details get confirmed only after the consignment gets booked in the country of origin.”

Eyebrows have been raised by military officials over what they have called the bureaucratic over-reach that has led to the over-stretched medical resources of the Indian armed forces being further put to use to run what have been termed as “DRDO” hospitals, but which in fact are being run by health experts and staff from the Indian military.

Army officials, who spoke to this newspaper, said that one such prominent “DRDO” Covid hospital—S.V.P. or Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel hospital near Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) office in Delhi, which was resurrected last month on 19 April, is being managed by 122 medical officers, 48 nursing officers and 120 paramedical staff from the Army, Navy and the Air force.

Similar such recently established and upcoming “DRDO” Covid hospitals in Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Varanasi and Patna are being managed by a total of at least 56-plus doctors and more than 200 nursing and paramedical staff of the Army. Despite this, they are being called “DRDO” hospitals. The number of Army medical specialists who will be deputed to these Covid hospitals will increase in the coming days for public good, Army sources said.

Officials told this newspaper that the military has also formed a contingent of 33 doctors, 69 paramedical staff and 34 nursing staff for another such 450-bed DRDO hospital in Lucknow as it is located in the VIP Lok Sabha constituency of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. This hospital is likely to start functioning in the coming days. A similar setup is already being executed at Varanasi, with at least 35 doctors from the military being tasked to manage it.

According to military officials, who spoke off the record, considering the issue involves two different arms of the Ministry of Defence, the “DRDO” hospital in Delhi was branded as a DRDO hospital despite the fact that not a “single DRDO scientist was involved in either the planning, running or execution of services at the hospital”.

A senior military officer, while speaking to this newspaper, said that the DRDO has promised the government something that it cannot deliver on its own.

“DRDO has promised the government that four more hospitals will be set up. One has to understand that the most important and crucial part of this entire operation, i.e., provisioning of medical personnel and facilities such as instrumentation have been left to the ‘discretion’ of the armed forces. Now the question arises, from where will the doctors, nurses and paramedical staff needed to run these hospitals come from? Obviously from the Indian Armed Forces with support from the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs). It is important to add that this ‘buffer’ (medical support) of the armed forces, which was to be used only in case of emergencies, has already been used in the first instant (referring to the first Covid-19 surge in 2020). The DRDO, apart from erecting a banner and sending a single person, who is an inventory manager, is not playing any other role in the Delhi hospital”, the officer claimed. However, he added that the military was always glad to assist in ensuring health security to the people of India.

This newspaper reached out to DRDO for their comment on the developments. In their response, DRDO sources said that the medical establishments were being managed jointly with some aspect being taken care of by the armed forces and the rest being handled by the DRDO. “All the medical officers, and paramedical staff are from the Armed Forces Medical Services. The hospital was set up by DRDO and facility management issues like supplies of medicines oxygen etc., are being taken care of by DRDO. Admission of patient and medical care are with AFMS doctors. The Commandant is also a Major General of AFMS”, an official source with the DRDO told this newspaper.

According to another Army official, it may be more appropriate to call these hospitals Indian Armed Forces hospitals. “The Ministry of Defence needs to sort this out. It is about recognizing the efforts that the military is putting in”, the official said.

“We are tending to our own men and their dependents and on top of that we are assisting the civilian population by using our ‘excess capacities’. We are doing what the private hospitals were supposed to do. Bureaucrats need to understand that the Armed Forces Medical Corps has a very special work to do, in war and peace that directly affects the nation’s security. You cannot start treating it as any other medical service and not even give it credit for delivering care to Covid-19 patients,” the official added.

Britain on Monday reported 1,649 new COVID-19 infections and one new death within 28 days of a positive test.

Monday is a public holiday, which has in the past affected the numbers reported. The death toll from the disease in Britain now stands at 127,539. Meanwhile, some 50 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been given to people across Britain, the government said.

The new development came as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there is a “good chance” the one-meter plus rule for social distancing can be ditched next month.

But he also said that the move would be dependent on the data, and “we can’t say it categorically yet”.

With the vaccine rollout moving fast, Johnson once again called upon British people to come forward and get their jabs when asked to do so.

The British government is easing its COVID-19 restrictions step by step. Its roadmap shows that all legal limits on social contact could be remove on June 21.

The ban on foreign holidays is expected to be lifted for people in England from May 17 as part of the next easing of coronavirus restrictions.

Experts have warned that despite progress in vaccine rollout, Britain is “still not out of the woods” amid concerns over new variants, particularly those first emerged in South Africa, Brazil and India, and the third wave of pandemic on the European continent.

To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Russia, the United States as well as the European Union have been racing against time to roll out coronavirus vaccines.