A calamity has befallen us all on an indiscriminate global basis. It’s impacting India for sure, but it is impacting everyone in the world.
That said, the fact that it is global does not make it any more bearable for people in India. Ask a businessman, a store-owner or a migrant worker and you will get an earful. It is all pervasive. It’s not the deaths, or the ventilator shortages, as it was in the US, but it is heart-wrenching nevertheless.
At the end of the day, this is not where world wanted to be in 2020. But for the sake for our collective sanity, we have to find a way of dealing with it.
Away from the public health issue, from an economic standpoint, it is bad and probably gets worse. As India comes out of the lockdown, whether it’s in May, June or July -- it matters but, not that much in the larger geopolitical strategic context.
There will be immediate issues to be dealt with – an economy in contraction; demand deficiency everywhere; consumption and investments cratering all around; NPAs rising, industry facing capital issues, etc, etc. There are solutions – all of them suboptimal – but solutions, nevertheless, can be found and implemented.