India, ‘pharmacy of the world’, starts COVID vaccine shipments to neighbours
INDIA has started delivering coronavirus vaccines to its neighbours, the foreign ministry said, flagging off a drive to garner goodwill in an often fractious region with the first shipment sent to the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Bangladesh and Nepal said they expected deliveries on Thursday. The only neighbour absent from India's list apart from China, is regional rival Pakistan, which had not requested assistance, according to an Indian government official. Many low and middle-income countries are relying on India, the world's biggest vaccine maker, for supplies to start COVID-19 immunisation programmes and bring an end to their outbreaks. "The…