India’s nationwide lockdown and its aftermaths on jobs and its economy

Last updated on February 13th, 2023 at 04:48 pm

The coronavirus pandemic is enormously affecting the world economy. Its effect isn’t constrained to specific geography, religion, culture, or ethnicity, however, envelops pretty much every part of human life. The outbreak of the virus’ has influenced more than 180 nations over the globe, and in India, around 12 million will be pushed to the very edge of poverty with the increase in jobs cut and shutting down of small businesses.

As indicated by India Today, in 2019, Nirmala Sitharaman, while introducing the financial budget of 2019, stated the Modi 2.0 cabinet visions to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2024. But, PM Modi’s vision of a $5 trillion economy seems blurred with the economic destruction that the pandemic is producing.

Around 122 million people in India were out of jobs in just a month, according to figures from CMIE. Small businesses and daily wagers have been struck hard the most. This includes laborers utilized for construction services, workmanship, craftsman, and so on.

PM Narendra Modi won his second term elections with a colossal margin, promising to lift India’s most unfortunate out of poverty. However, now it’s a big task for the government to bring the Indian economy back on track from the verge of recession.

An economic slowdown in the financial institutions is confronting liquidity issues and a credit crunch is being felt all over the place. With people cutting down their consumption to essential goods only and due to that private consumption has dampened. Private investments also have seen a halt principally because of lower credit flow and due to future vulnerability. Government expenditure, although, is required to give some relief and add to the GDP.

The stimulus package of $24 billion (Rs 1.7 lakh crore) as Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna to give alleviation to individuals is expected to moderate some effect and help poor people and daily wagers during these hard times.

In the Indian economy, the most concerning is the situation of the informal sector which accounts for roughly 94 percent of the total job in the nation and contributes nearly 45 percent of the output. Moreover, the formal sector is the backbone of our infrastructure and currently many died of hunger and a lot are suffering the aftermaths of lockdown.

Almost all the enterprises have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic; the ones which have been hit hard are the Airlines and Tourism, Hospitality, Automobile, and Power sector.

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The hospitality sector which incorporates inns, resorts, hotels, cafés, restaurants, and the automobile sector has witnessed a sharp blow. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has concocted a report and has projected a total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 1.9 percent for India in FY 2020-21.

The Coronavirus Pandemic must be constrained by following government guidelines and until a treatment or a vaccine is being worked on, the administration needs to keep the monetary exercises to such an economical level that it could bounce-back effectively once the pandemic is ended.

Article Credit: NDTV/ Economic Times/ Daily Pioneer/ First Post/ India Today

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