AT AN EARLY-APRIL briefing addressing the surge in coronavirus infections in India, Reserve Bank governor Shaktikanta Das took refuge in an unlikely source of economic wisdom. Rather than quoting the likes of Adam Smith or John Maynard Keynes, he chose American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr: “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
As the second wave of Covid-19 brought India’s health care system to its knees, the worry increasingly is on how much pain the next target in line, the economy, can bear. Hope may be infinite, but stark reality is harshly finite for thousands of small and medium businesses already bleeding from the first round of spikes last year.
In fact, indications are emerging that the economy had already slowed down before the second wave hit with brute force, despite all the pep talk of V-shaped trajectories, festive booms and ‘better than pre-Covid level’ growth claims. “Those were just green shoots of recovery. The real economy has not grown at this point of time,” said Sethurathnam Ravi, economist and former chairman of Bombay Stock Exchange. “If you look at the last two and a half years, we were not doing well, our growth rate was low [before] we got into a negative growth [after last year’s lockdown]. Manufacturing output hasn’t come anywhere near its earlier peak. We are not anywhere in a growing zone.”
この記事は THE WEEK の May 09, 2021 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は THE WEEK の May 09, 2021 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
What Will It Take To Clean Up Delhi Air?
IT IS ASKED, year after year, why Delhi’s air remains unbreathable despite several interventions to reduce pollution.
Trump and the crisis of liberalism
Although Donald Trump's election to a non-consecutive second term to the US presidency is not unprecedented—Grover Cleveland had done it in 1893—it is nevertheless a watershed moment.
Men eye the woman's purse
A couple of months ago, I chanced upon a young 20-something man at my gym walking out with a women’s sling bag.
When trees hold hands
A filmmaker explores the human-nature connect through the living root bridges
Ms Gee & Gen Z
The vibrant Anuja Chauhan and her daughter Nayantara on the generational gap in romance writing
Vikram Seth-a suitable man
Our golden boy of literature was the star attraction at the recent Shillong Literary Festival in mysterious Meghalaya.
Superman bites the dust
When my granddaughter Kim was about three, I often took her to play in a nearby park.
OLD MAN AND THE SEA
Meet G. Govinda Menon, the 102-year-old engineer who had a key role in surveying the Vizhinjam coast in the 1940s, assessing its potential for an international port
Managing volatility: smarter equity choices in uncertain markets
THE INDIAN STOCK MARKET has delivered a strong 11 per cent CAGR over the past decade, with positive returns for eight straight years.
Investing in actively managed low-volatility portfolios keeps risks at bay
AFTER A ROARING bull market over the past year, equity markets in the recent months have gone into a correction mode as FIIs go on a selling spree. Volatility has risen and investment returns are hurt.
