NEW DELHI — India said Sunday that it had approved two coronavirus vaccines, one made by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and the other developed in India, for emergency use, a step toward halting the spread of the coronavirus in one of the world’s hardest-hit countries.

The approvals were announced at a news conference in New Delhi.

Dr. V.G. Somani, the drugs controller general of India, said the decision to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine and a local vaccine from Bharat Biotech came after “careful examination” by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, India’s pharmaceutical regulator.

Indian regulators are still considering approvals for other vaccines. One, made by Pfizer and BioNTech, has been approved in the United States and Europe. Another, Russia’s Sputnik V, appears to be less far along.

Britain became the first country to grant emergency approval for the AstraZeneca vaccine last week.

India will face some steep challenges. Doses for more than 1.3 billion people must be paid for and distributed across a vast country. India has more than 10.3 million confirmed coronavirus cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.

All India Drug Action Network, a public health watchdog, requested more information about the scope of clinical trials and dosing regimens for both vaccines.

On the Bharat Biotech vaccine, the group said it was “baffled to understand what scientific logic has motivated the top experts” to authorize a vaccine still in clinical trials.

Somani said the vaccine had been administered to 22,500 trial participants and “has been found to be safe.”

Both the AstraZeneca vaccine and the Bharat Biotech vaccine require two doses, Somani said.