It goes without saying that the entire world has been increasingly overawed on seeing the resilience and the spirit to fight back by the people of India in respect of battling the dreaded pandemic of corona virus. In the words of the Prime Minister that in India, fight against Covid was people driven in the truest sense of the term was only recognition of the strength of the people of the country. True, much dependence upon how the nation is steered safely out of unprecedented natural calamities like the one currently vastly affecting two thirds of the global population, depended on the quality of leadership but it is the people who whole heartedly cooperated with the Government in following the guidelines and protocol of the nearly month long lockdown, putting at stake their means of livelihood and shutting normal daily activities.
It is without any doubt that the lockdown has immensely affected the economy of the country though not as worst as economies of most of the developed and rich countries where this pandemic has wrought havoc of unimaginable hues. We also note that while the Government had to resort to uncontainable antidote of lockdown, which we may call as unerring and infallible, to prevent loss of lives, some very minor economic activities continued like keeping the supply chain of essential goods going and from April 20, more relaxations were announced to give some push to the economic activities. In run up to the completion of the lockdown 2.0, the Prime Minister reiterating that importance had to be given to the economy as well conveys the need to set things right gradually. It is not that matured Indian nation is not aware of the fact that the danger was not over even when more districts in the country were reporting “nil” or very few cases on daily basis and more areas were graduating to orange and green zones from the red or hotspot zones. In other words , in quasi normal and even in normal conditions, precautions of social or physical distancing and wearing face masks etc have to be an inalienable part of the fight against the residual effects of COVID-19. In the words of the Prime Minister during interacting with some of the Chief Ministers on April 27, “the impact of corona virus shall remain visible in the coming months.” This, he has shared with the countrymen based on tangible expert advice.
Having said so, giving due importance to the economy cannot be overlooked or afforded to be postponed any more now which throws immense challenge to both the Government machinery, the policy planners, medical and economic experts, persons directly connected with economic activating activities and the people itself. Ensuring rapid response under the present circumstances is the test of the mammoth capacity of the people for whom the Prime Minister has all along been all praises for making the two phases of the lockdown immensely successful. Can we afford to let any complacency creep up in our constant vigil? Can we write off the danger from the dreaded virus even with and following continuous success recorded in its management ? Any hope with advent of hot summer and followed by rainy season in getting rid of the fangs of the virus due to natural seasonal factors would be nursing illusions only as there have been no reports about the virus not resisting hot and humid weather conditions. Well, that puts tremendous onus on both the Government as well as the people and despite these grave challenges, economic activities have to be kick started gradually.
Health infrastructure, however, was required to be boosted. More testing facilities needed to be provided and massive testing regime to be aspired for so as to rule out any hidden and potential case of any type of symptomatic infection related to the virus. Let the remaining days of lockdown 2.0 be more effectively observed to aspire for better results to generate more economic activities.
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