>India wouldn't have taken it off the recommended drugs list.

Normally authorities are afraid to go against W.H.O recommendations, because if it didn't work out, it would be hard to justify it on the basis of local observations alone, at least on paper.

But the important thing is that some states still did it, which might indicate there was very observable benefit.

That's rather credulous.

So's the idea that ivermectin must be the explanation for India's COVID spike abating.

Spikes abated all over the world, more than once in most countries, without ivermectin.