Alcohol consumption in India to touch 6.5 billion litres by 2020

Alcohol consumption in India is estimated to touch about 6.5 billion litres by 2020 from about 5.4 billion litres in 2016, data from Statista revealed.

Ritesh Presswala

May 05, 2020 / 20:13 IST

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has allowed standalone alcohol shops to operate by following strict social distancing orders.

This decision came in phase three and after 40 days of the nationwide lockdown imposed to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus, or COVID-19. However, it left the final decision regarding their opening with state governments.

"Standalone shops will be allowed to sell liquor in orange and green zones. Persons visiting the shops will have to maintain a distance of at least six feet from each other," the notification read.

The liquor industry contributes the maximum tax revenue to the government and relaxation in the sale of liquor will help the government generate some revenue during this crises.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

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There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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