February 28, 2021

How to register for Covid Vaccine in India

This is a short step by step guide to register for COVID-19 Vaccine in India.

This guide shows how to register on the Cowin website and also how to book an appointment at your nearby vaccination center.

Registration opens at 9am on Monday, 1st March, 2021.


Vaccination is open for citizens above 60 years of age and all citizens above 45years who have co-morbidities. 

Update (March 1st, 10.20am):

Follow this: Open Cowin Registration page. Wait for 1 minute till entire page loads in the background. Then enter your mobile number and again wait for 20 seconds. Then click on GET OTP.

Once you get the OTP, enter the same and click Register. Wait for 1 minute. Do not keep clicking again and again. The site needs some time to connect to the database and get back. 

Patience helps.

Update (March 1st, 10.20am):

While many people have complained about the website not working and have not even even received their OTPs, some have managed to sneak in and have been lucky enough to get registrations done.


Plz do not hit the refresh button as it further adds to the server clog. Just give it some time and it should settle. 

Update (1st March, 8am):
The link to register on the CoWin website is https://selfregistration.cowin.gov.in/. (Will work after 9am)


Update (1st March, 6am):
The location wise list of all Govt and Private Vaccination centres is now available on the above Cowin website. You can search by typing in your area name. Location is also shown on the map.


Follow these step-by-step procedures to register. 



The Govt has clarified that the CoWin App will not support registrations. Only Cowin Website will.

Currently India is using Serum Institutes-Oxford-AstraZeneca COVISHIELD and Bharat Biotech COAXIN for vaccination. Both these are extremely safe and can result in only mild sife effects like light fever or arm pain or itching at injection site. 

Two doses will be given at 28 day intervals. Once both the doses are done, you will be able to download the COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate from the website and also the app. 

List of Hospitals empanelled to give COVID19 vaccine

List of Hospitals for COVID-19 Vaccine in Telangana 

* Co-morbid conditions in 45-59yr old patients needs a prescription at the time of vaccination on a doctor's letterhead with stamp. The following conditions if present, make one eligible for the vaccine. 

February 16, 2021

Block Ads on phone without root

It is normally thought that any ad-blocking app or software on your android phone works only when the phone is rooted or has a custom rom.

To a certain extant, this is true. However, there is another method by which every advert on your phone gets blocked, including those in the UI-(as in case of some custom UIs like Xiaomi / Redmi / Poco phones' MIUI and Realme / Oppo phones , and also those ads within any other app or websites opened in the browsers. These days, even Samsung has started adding ads within their UI.

This is the easiest method to block all ads on your android phone.

This method should work on most phones. The idea is very simple and easy. All you need to do is route your internet traffic via a private DNS that blocks ads like Adguard.

Navigate to the the Network Settings page in your Settings panel. At the bottom of the list you will find the Private DNS entry. Just enter the private dns url dns.adguard.com in that and save. That's it. You're done. No more ads on your android phone!



However, in some custom UIs like MIUI, this native android setting is hidden. There are some free apps that can show up the same.

Install QuickShortcutMaker app from the Google Play Store. 

Scroll to the Settings option in the Activites tab and find:

com.android.settings.Settings$NetworkDashboardActivity

You might also try to sear for 'mor'. Once you find it, click on it and 'Try' it. The option will open the Private DNS entry box where you can enter the private url dns.adguard.com

That's it. You should be done.



Alternative to Adguard:

Instead of using the Adguard DNS, you can also use dot.tiar.app as the private dns. The method to use remains same as above.