If the consecutive additions of nearly 10,000 cases per day over last six days including Wednesday supplemented by the equally alarming casualty figures is an worrisome indication that India is on the threshold of stepping into the pandemic’s ‘peak period’, after World Bank’s prediction that the country will see a contraction of 3.2 % in its GDP, it’s now a double whammy. Things are taking worse turns and if ‘flattening the curve’ in the context of the pandemic seems a distant dream, ‘flattening the GDP’ seems completely unavoidable now.

In its latest edition of the Global Economic Prospect, World Bank, raising the alarm has said that during  the 2020-21 fiscal, a 3.2% shrink of GDP is imminent. This is the latest of the forecast about the Indian economy delivered by a host of international agencies, where the common caveat is that contraction will be severe with far-reaching effects. It can be recounted that over past few weeks, several international rating agencies which are traditionally taken seriously by the country’s government establishments such as Moody’s, Fitch and S&P have all given more harsher predictions that in the current fiscal, India will see a drop in economic growth by 4 to 5 %. Amid this deluge of gloomy figures, findings about the prevailing rates of unemployment that have been carried in several reports suggest that the already tight job market is running short of breath due to the prolonged lockdown. As per Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data, unemployment rate peaked to 27.1 per cent in the week ending May 3 and now as on Wednesday, even if it hovers around 20%, thanks to the gradual reopening of the economy, it needs no emphasis that it’s far from the zone when the country’s youths can be hopeful.

Despite a series of measures unleashed by the central government with the 20 lakh cr economic revival package as the centrepiece, a common clamour made by the economists is the need to reimagine the traditional concepts of recharging what is now being felt as the most immediate necessity- stoking the demand side of the economy. After Covid, the economic ecosystem has undergone a sea change and to respond to these extraordinary circumstances, banks need to shed their risk-aversion attitude and be more ‘magnanimous’. Cash transfers to the economically disadvantaged segments who have become more financially marginalised due to the lockdown, even if it means further stain on the fiscal deficit, must be thought seriously.

If there’s a will there is a way- the old saying goes. In this case, more than any ‘political will’, a will borne out of rational evaluation of the current milieu is needed to win over the economic misfortunes. 

---

Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

<< Back to News List