HT Morning Brief: Fake Anti-Rabies Vaccine Resurfaces, ISRO Employees Question Privatisation Push

Hindustan Times’ morning briefing highlights concerns inside India’s space agency, a renewed counterfeit vaccine case, changes in Congress’s state organisation and legal action involving Zee founder Subhash Chandra.

Nine associations representing thousands of ISRO employees wrote to chairman and Department of Space secretary V. Narayanan on September 4. They sought clarification about the government’s privatisation policy, ISRO’s future role, and the effects on current employees and future recruitment. The concerns come six years after the government opened the space sector to private companies.

India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation said it traced a batch of Abhayrab anti-rabies vaccine, which it described as misbranded and not of standard quality after it failed a potency test, to an unlicensed flat in north Delhi. Police seized the vials there in April, and four people were arrested. The briefing said counterfeit Abhayrab doses had surfaced for the second time in less than two years.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge removed Bhupesh Baghel as the party’s general secretary in charge of poll-bound Punjab and appointed former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot. The party also named Randeep Surjewala as Gujarat in-charge and moved three other in-charges to different states ahead of upcoming elections.

The Central Bureau of Investigation filed an FIR against Essel Group chairperson Subhash Chandra, alleging that he misled LIC Housing Finance about his net worth while guaranteeing two loans that later defaulted. The lender suffered a reported loss of ₹1,322 crore. At the CBI’s request, immigration authorities issued a lookout circular covering airports, ports and land border entry and exit points.