This story has been circulated in the media a few times. There's no connection whatsoever between the CanSino deal and the procurement negotiations that Minister Anand's team were doing. I don't know where that comes from, to be honest. CanSino was just a research relationship with the company at that juncture. It did not defer to nor was it connected to any of the other activity under way.
On February 2nd, 2021. See this statement in context.