wrirte an essay on any one of the following: impact of covid-19 on Indian economy
Answers
The impact of coronavirus pandemic on India has been largely disruptive in terms of economic activity as well as a loss of human lives. Almost all the sectors have been adversely affected as domestic demand and exports sharply plummeted with some notable exceptions where high growth was observed. An attempt is made to analyze the impact and possible solutions for some key sectors.
FOOD & Agriculture
Since agriculture is the backbone of the country and a part of the government announced essential category, the impact is likely to be low on both primary agricultural production and usage of agro-inputs. Several state governments have already allowed free movement of fruits, vegetables, milk etc. Online food grocery platforms are heavily impacted due to unclear restrictions on movements and stoppage of logistics vehicles. RBI and Finance Minister announced measures will help the industry and the employees in the short term. Insulating the rural food production areas in the coming weeks will hold a great answer to the macro impact of COVID-19 on Indian food sector as well as larger economy.
AVIATION & TOURISM
The contribution of the Aviation Sector and Tourism to our GDP stands at about 2.4% and 9.2% respectively. The Tourism sector served approximately 43 million people in FY 18-19. Aviation and Tourism were the first industries that were hit significantly by the pandemic. The common consensus seems to be that COVID will hit these industries harder than 9/11 and the Financial Crisis of 2008. These two industries have been dealing with severe cash flow issues since the start of the pandemic and are staring at a potential 38 million lay-offs, which translates to 70 per cent of the total workforce. The impact is going to fall on both, White and Blue collar jobs. According to IATO estimates, these industries may incur losses of about 85 billion Rupees due to travel restrictions. The Pandemic has also brought about a wave of innovation in the fields of contactless boarding and travel technologies.
TELECOM
There has been a significant amount of changes in the telecom sector of India even before the COVID 19 due to brief price wars between the service providers. Most essential services and sectors have continued to run during the pandemic thanks to the implementation of the ‘work from home’ due to restrictions. With over 1 billion connections as of 2019, the telecom sector contributes about 6.5 per cent of GDP and employs almost 4 million people. Increased broadband usage had a direct impact and resulted in pressure on the network. Demand has been increased by about 10%. However, the Telco’s are bracing for a sharp drop in adding new subscribers. As a policy recommendation, the government can aid the sector by relaxing the regulatory compliances and provide moratorium for spectrum dues, which can be used for network expansions by the companies.
PHARMACEUTICALS
The pharmaceutical industry has been on the rise since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially in India, the largest producer of generic drugs globally. With a market size of $55 billion during the beginning of 2020, it has been surging in India, exporting Hydroxychloroquine to the world, esp. to the US, UK, Canada, and the Middle-East.
Hie Mate ✌️
In response to the biggest economic crisis since 1979 triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent 54-day lockdown – one of the harshest in the world, the Central government’s fiscal relief so far is limited to just about 1.1% of GDP. It has, however, allowed states to increase their borrowing limit unconditionally by 0.5% of their Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) or Rs 1.07 lakh crore.
A chunk of the Centre’s fiscal relief – Rs 40,000 crore or 0.2 per cent of GDP – has come as additional allocation to MGNREGA over and above the Budget Estimate of Rs 61,500 crore in the fifth and final tranche of the Atmanirbhar package announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday.
Much of the May 12 Atmanirbhar package of Prime Minister Narendra Modi totaling Rs 20 lakh crore and elaborated over the last five days by Sitharaman has been liquidity driven, with little burden on the exchequer. The government also took this opportunity to re-package some of the old measures, and push some new reforms such as in agriculture, public sector enterprises, which has been pending for long.
The money that the poor got in their hands over the last two months following the Central government announcements has been just Rs 33,176 crore so far, Finance Minister Sitharaman said. This includes Rs 10,025 crore to women Jan Dhan account holders, Rs 16,394 crore to
The farmers under PM Kisan Yojana (frontloading of payment without additional fiscal cost), Rs 2,807 crore to old persons, widows and the disabled, and Rs 3,950 crore to construction workers (also without any fiscal outgo since it is paid from the Building and Construction Workers’ Cess Welfare Fund).