Continuing the article which posted earlier, The Covid Impact – Indian Businesses’ Conundrum, the Indian Government has rightly announced lockdown from 22nd March 2020 to 14th April 2020 due to Covid-19. Multiple global agencies, professionals, governments, news media and many more have appreciated this very bold and daring step. To state from The New Yorker Article on April 1, 2020 By Isaac Chotiner “How COVID-19 Will Hit India”.
An extract from the Q&A article credits Mr. Ramanan as answering “At the stage we were at, the lockdown had to have happened, to slow down the epidemic. Otherwise, given all the reasons I spoke of earlier, we would have had a really sharp peak headed into April. And, generally, for politicians to act proactively to prevent death is not very popular, because the public will never give credit for deaths they averted. The public will only blame them for the damage they caused. So, from that perspective, Modi was very decisive and acted quickly.”
In a country like India, where
- social norms and customs encourage large gatherings of people for any and every occasion,
- the term “social distancing” is being touted around for the first time,
- crowded market places, workplaces, and dwellings are the norm,
- even relief measures lead to crowding,
- fortnightly shopping is done by a negligible portion of the population,
- work from home (WHF) is a fairly novel concept, and
- for many other myriad reasons, the decision to lockdown seems to be the most appropriate.
Prime Minister Modi’s stand is typically bold of him and what was more remarkable is the unexpected large common show of resilience and discipline that the author is sure most Indians didn’t realise that they were capable of. Yes, the human impact and desire to live has been a paramount driver for this.
Even then, for a fatalistic and destiny driven God fearing nation, this uniform resolve is amazing and credit be given to the Indian Leadership and the oft derided Indian Citizen, both have shown their true heroic colours.
In the following chapters, the author attempts to highlight the economic cost of this enormous lockdown. We may have been able to save lives that are always paramount, but will the economic impact make us suffer long and hard. Is business impact not required to be given not more but at least considerable attention to see that the country does not spiral into an economic crisis and despondency from which it may take years to recover?
