2020: Pandemic, lockdowns and a vaccine tie-up boost for India-UK ties

COVID-19 pandemic, a cycle of lockdowns to control spread of a deadly virus and havoc it wreaked on global health and ecomy is inescapable defining feature of year 2020. However, a glimmer of hope that 2021 could be healthier came in form of "safe and effective" vaccines in human trials, with one of m symbolising a real boost to India-UK relations.

" Serum Institute and Oxford University partnership demonstrates UK-India relationship at its best: a vaccine developed in UK and made in India; drawing our brightest minds toger to save lives as a global force for good," declared UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, during his official visit to India in December – a rarity in a year of largely virtual visits.

While Oxford vaccine awaits regulatory clearance for mass vaccination, Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine began its rollout in UK on Vaccine Day (V-Day) December 8, when 87-year-old Dr Hari Shukla and his wife Ranjan, 83, became world’s first Indian-origin recipients of a jab against COVID-19.

moment signalled beginning of end of a crisis-ridden year which even led ‘Oxford English Dictionary’ to transform its Word of Year into ‘Words of an Unprecedented Year’ to incorporate all pandemic-induced vocabulary – lockdown, WFH (work from home), support bubbles, key workers, furlough, circuit-breaker and more.

Furlough was life raft thrown by UK’s first-ever Indian-origin Chancellor of Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, who delivered serial budgets as he led UK’s ecomic response to lockdowns.

offer for businesses to put staff on government-backed enforced leave instead of mass redundancies and several support schemes have been widely hailed a success story of a difficult year, sending Sunak’s popularity ratings soaring.

", definitely t. Seeing what Prime Minister has to deal with, this is a job hard eugh for me to do," he said, in response to a question about wher he is ready to move next door to . 10 from . 11 Downing Street – where 40-year-old minister also made history by lighting Diwali diyas on one of London’s most famous streets.

And, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson did have a lot to deal with, what with his pursuit of an "oven-ready" Brexit deal which has proved anything but ready, to his engment with partner Carrie Symonds in February and n becoming a far to ir baby boy Wilfred in May.

However, pandemic disrupted any celebrations as Johnson tested positive for COVID-19 just weeks after engment anuncement and n had to be rushed to intensive care unit until his recovery a week later in April.

It was during se early weeks of pandemic in UK when panic was its worst as several high-profile figures went into self-isolation after testing positive, including Prince Charles.

In or royal news, 2020 began with his younger son and Queen Elizabeth II’s grandson, Prince Harry, and his ex-actress wife Meghan Markle stepping down as frontline royals and relocating to US with ir baby son Archie.

It triggered much media speculation around rift it had caused with older bror Prince William, who also tested positive for COVID-19 during first wave but kept it under wraps until much later in year.

Several studies also pointed to a particularly adverse impact of coronavirus on people from ethnic mirities, including Indians. An official review was set up, which indicated that higher levels of comorbidities in this section of population, such as diabetes, was likely factor.

On National Health Service frontlines, an Indian-origin doctor couple - Nishant Joshi and Meenal Viz - took government to court over safety issues around personal protective equipment for doctors and healthcare workers, also in high-risk category.

ir case will come up in New Year, as will some of high-profile Indian extradition cases, including a ruling expected in case of Nirav Modi, wanted in Punjab National Bank scam case.

While wanted cricket bookie Sanjeev Chawla marked first high-profile extradition of its kind under India-UK Extradition Treaty when he was sent back to India in February, case of former Kingfisher Airlines boss Vijay Mallya, wanted on fraud and money laundering charges in India, remains stuck in a "confidential" legal wrangle after he exhausted all his UK court appeals against extradition in May.

pandemic may have had impact of pushing all or developments and news to periphery but one development that remains in focus is Brexit and Britain’s future as a n-member of European Union (EU).

With transition phase agreed under UK-EU divorce pact coming to an end on December 31, major divergences remain in path to a post-Brexit trade pact. Deal or deal, early months of 2021 will be ones to watch for impact it would have on an already bruised and battered ecomy.

While that remains a big unkwn as year comes to a close, one of few kwns is that 2021 is expected to be a significant one for India-UK relations with Johnson accepting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to be chief guest at Republic Day parade.

His first major bilateral visit since assuming office as UK Prime Minister and Brexit is a symbolism that is t lost – as UK exits 27-member ecomic, India is first stop on new Global Britain nda.