How Has COVID-19 Affected India?

When the COVID-19 pandemic was initially reported in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, little did the world realise the potential disaster that awaited them. Considered a chronic pneumonia, the virus remains mutating as the days go by and the victims are imposed to quarantine away from the society.

Affecting millions of people across the globe, the virus brought along various unfortunate events - widespread deaths, drastic economic slowdown, terminated international and domestic travel, forced the governments to imposing countrywide lockdown, people advised wear masks and stay sanitised alongside maintaining social distancing and practise self-quarantining, and crippled the healthcare system of many countries.

In India, the virus has crippled its economy as well as affected various businesses, ranging from small to large organisations. The effect of business closure has placed the country on a standstill, while majority of the daily basis earners struggle to make ends meet. Majorly affected categories like IT, travel or advertising have rapidly declined due to halt in business. Clients, businesspersons and entrepreneurs, investors, and so on have pulled off from any further collaboration since their businesses face very little happening. Where there is little to no transactional activity, what other choices are there for these entities?

Let us take a broad overview on some questions regarding the situation in India. 

In India, How Has The Virus Affected Small Businesses And The People? 

The novel virus has effectively played a significant role in shutting down small to medium-sized businesses across the nation. Furthermore, it has forced many organisations to lay off its employees and workers, thanks to its crippling financial state. 

Largely due to its massive population, vast-scale rural areas and people living under poverty line, India has seen a massive shortage in healthcare equipment as well as food. Since social distancing is the practise of the hour, many people fail to do so mainly because of lack of awareness. Even migrant workers who travelled to another state in order to earn their daily bread and butter are forced to stay put without means to go back home. However, the government has provided various means to tackle the challenges faced due to the virus, but the success of the solutions is yet to be seen.

Why Is An Economic Intervention Required? 

Firstly, we should understand what an economic intervention means. In the simplest of explanations, the government or international institution initiate economic intervention to bridge the gap or correct market failures in order to take care of the general welfare of the people. In times like this, when economy has almost crashed throughout the globe, it is paramount to enforce economic intervention to meet the day-to-day expenditure and monetary activities of the people. 

Furthermore, if the nation does not manage to sustain its economic situation, it goes under recession, meaning extreme decline in widespread economic activity across the country. India is witnessing similar happenings everywhere, where people are losing jobs or employees having their salary cut. Thanks to such a worrying situation, it has become hard for people to survive, especially daily wage earners. 

India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has announced a special COVID-19 economic package, wherein the amount Rs 20 lakhs crore is aimed at making India self-reliant and achieve stable economy. He ensured the package to bring forth a revival strategy to India’s economy, which suffered because of the pandemic virus.

Why Should We Buy Indian Local Products And How It Will Help Businesses To Get a Boost Also The Indian Economy? 

In the recent speech by India’s Prime Minister, he advised people to focus on the local market. Putting it in a single perspective, this will benefit the local industries, manufactures, and supply chain to broaden their income while staying relevant in the market. In addition, this will retain ‘inter-circulation’ of cash flow, which will boost people’s economic conditions while also helping improve India’s economy. As we all are aware, buying foreign goods and services majorly benefits the international brands, whereas maintaining and focussing on local trade gives rise to the nation’s economy instead.