THE NEW WORLD DISORDER

The definition of permacrisis is a state of ongoing disruption to political, economic and social life from which there is no foreseeable exit. Covid-19, inflation, the conflict in Ukraine, rising energy and food prices and the destructive impact of climate change are the most obvious signs to show that the world is entering an era of protracted turmoil

- Dilip Bobb

THE world has never been in such a bad place. The pandemic, the war in Ukraine and supply chain disruptions have led to a perfect storm of a global economic crisis with rising energy prices and cost of living across the developed world and extreme weather conditions-unprecedented heatwaves and floods stemming from climate change all contributing to what is becoming known as a permacrisis.

Till now, global connectivity was seen as a positive thing, made possible by the wonders of science and technology that kept the world economy ticking along quite nicely. Then came the pandemic, what is termed a Black Swan event, and turned everything on its head. Global connectivity produced a negative cascading effect that affected every economy, rich and poor.

EFFECTS OF PANDEMIC

The pandemic has exacerbated trends contributing to cataclysmic effects on development progress, with millions of people around the world pushed deeper into extreme poverty and a growing gap between developed and developing countries. While governments struggled to cope with the medical and economic challenges posed by the pandemic, the global corporate sector went into meltdown. The hardest hit were construction, manufacturing and contact-intensive services like trade, transport, retail and tourism and its allied sectors like travel, aviation and leisure. Thousands of small businesses shut down and, in countries like India, the informal labour market collapsed alongside.