A tweet by public broadcaster Doordarshan misquoted Shaktikanta Das, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, by stating that vaccines would be available for all by the second half of 2022. DD News attributed the claim to the governor.
This quote was taken out of context by the tweet, as Das was quoting an assumption of the macroeconomic outlook of the International Monetary Fund's [IMF] April World Economic Outlook report, and was not giving a timeline on the rollout of the vaccine in India.
Das was giving an unscheduled address outlining the RBI's response to ongoing brutal second wave of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which included a ₹50,000 crores on-tap liquidity facility for banks to lend to health and allied industries, and a new loan resolution scheme, among others.
The tweet by Doordarshan has since then been deleted. A screenshot of it can be seen below and an archive can be found here.
"#RBI Governor @DasShaktikanta: Vaccine would be available to all by second half of 2022", the tweet said.
This tweet lead several users of Twitter to question if the RBI Governor had the mandate to make such announcements on issues of public health.
The transcript of the full address by Das can be found here and his video address here.
Below is the excerpt where he quotes from the IMF. BOOM found no other evidence from his address that he announced any sort of timeline or deadline to get the Indian population inoculated.
In April 2021, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised up its global growth projection for 2021 to 6.0 per cent (from 5.5 per cent projected in January2021) on the assumption that vaccines would be available in advanced economies (AEs) and some emerging market economies (EMEs) by the summer of 2021 and in most other countries by the second half of 2022.
It was in this edition of the WEO report that the IMF also stated that India would grow 12.5% in the ongoing financial year.
Also Read: IMF Upgrades India's Growth Projections To 12.5% In FY22 In Latest WEO
What has the IMF said?
In its WEO report, the IMF was addressing the global uneven distribution of vaccines as part of its outlook for the future.
Based on procurement data and the most recent progress on inoculation, the baseline assumes staggered and uneven distribution of vaccines across regions. Broad vaccine availability in advanced economies and some emerging market economies is expected for the summer of 2021 and in most countries by the second half of 2022
This can be found in the first chapter of the report, pages 5 - 6.
Find the report here.
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