In a June 7 address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a re-revised national Covid-19 vaccination policy. Its salient points were: vaccine procurement would again be centralised (instead of the Centre passing on the burden to the states, as it had earlier done when it ‘liberalised’ its vaccine policy on April 19); the Centre would reserve 25 per cent of vaccine stock for distribution among private players; and free vaccination would be made available for adults under 45. All these changes, Modi said, would come into effect on June 21. 

Before that, India’s Covid-19 vaccine policy mandated that the Centre could buy vaccines for Rs 150, while states paid Rs 300-600 per dose.