Surendra Ullal and Ramesh Soparawala
India Day celebrations not only in India but also across the world were greatly muted this year and the culprit is an unwanted guest- Coronavirus.
The global economy is down and India is not an exception. It is in this context that we had put a question to our prominent community activists and thinkers what in their option needs to be done to thwart the negative economies’ impact on the Indian economy.
The comments we had run apart last week but this week we have a few more responses which are published below The consensus is that the government could do a lot to inject confidence among business groups, especially small and medium sizes and encourage them to produce many items locally making India self sufficient and self reliant. This will lead to a great foreign exchange saving and generate lot of employment.
Here below we reproduce their views in some details
Dr Ram Gajela, a business magnet and CEO Chicago Home health said that Corona crisis has caught the entire world by surprise and has its impact again world wide economic and social spheres.
For India the best thing to do is to contain the spread of this virus and take measures to get more and more self-reliance in producing ingredients that go in the manufacture of finished products. We are hugely dependent on the countries like China to come with our finished products and this puts a drain not only on our foreign exchange but aggravates problems like unemployment and self defeatism.
Secondly, the government should encourage small and medium scale industries all the more, as they are the backbone of our economic structure and could again help generate lot of employment and impact favorably the job market. Soft loan and quick disbursement of the loans to small- medium businessmen should be the main plan for economic revival.
Dr. Sudhir Brahmbhatt, President and Founder of Center for Indian Cultural Education- Bal Vihar of St. Louis, MO. said that in the mist of political games in the world’s one of large population country, Indian PM Modi is working hard saving lives of Indian citizens and bring the economy slowly back. In his weekly radio address, PM Modi apologized for the impact of the strict stay in home measures, but there is no other way to stop the spread of the virus.
India’s response to the pandemic has defied global expectations. Unlike other nations in the world, India’s recovery rate from Covid -19 is 62.86%. India’s Covid-19 case fatality rate is progressively falling and is currently 2,49%, which is one of the lowest in the world. The credit goes to the efficient clinical management of hospitalized cases for it.
Also, effective clinical management of the moderate and severe cases through a well-executed standard of care protocol has ensured high rate of recovery among Covid patients. Interestingly amazingly medical attention is being provided to all the 3,73,379 active cases in hospital and home isolation
Viewing the Indian Economy scene the unemployment rate is high India announced a $22B bail out for the country poor including free food and cash hand out. Although 23.97% of workers were completely laid off or out of work since the lock down they will be supported by the Indian government.
The crisis is likely to affect this year’s Independence Day celebrations as well. The ramparts of the Red Fort could not be the same as on August 15 every year. The government has made arrangements keeping preventive measures in mind. The number of guests attending the ceremony were limited this year while children absent. The events organized was web-cast in order to reach out people at large.
Dr Sudhir said that he believes that the Indian govt. has taken proper steps in recovering from the pandemic disaster. India being technology savvy, it has a lot to gain from this situation. Since a lot of work will be conducted online, it is a great opportunity to develop competitive and easy to use technologies. Eliminating the dependence on foreign developed technologies would definitely help the economic growth.
While staving the spread of covid-19, employment can grow and can become major contributor in the world GDP. PM Narendrabhai Modi has been very effective in managing pandemic in India the best he could.
Hitesh Gandhi, President Gandhi Samaj of Chicago and a community leader said COVID-19 is going to be showing its impact and effects even after vaccine is found. World needs to learn to live with it like influenza and other respiratory diseases for a while. It’s very unfortunate that we are suffering this challenging time of our life.
This has a big effect on our social and financial life. I think the Indian government needsto be prepared for any kind of pandemic crisis in future. Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji is doing great job to control this crisis. Thousands of people are jobless, should get paid some extent and make sure government need to probe and get the loopholes plugged.
Also we all and the government need to get more self reliant in production and follow aggressively using Make in India products to make our country economically strong. At the end we need to be self-dependent to make India strong.
Jai Hind!!!
Vinesh Virani a front ranking community activist and top brass Art of Living Chicago said “In a post-COVID world, India must do what it can to continue its trend of economic growth by continuing to maintain its investment in the technology field, ensure strong global partnerships, and stay competitive with the likes of China while growing a strong internal market within India as well.
Some of India’s biggest assets are technological innovation and entrepreneurship; providing solid educational institutions and incubators for such innovation to nourish will be essential for India to set itself apart. However, it continues to face strong competition in innovation and particularly scale from China, which is looking to transition into the realm of technology and data as well.
India must maintain its strength in this field. In order to do so, it must maintain its strong partnerships with the European United and the United States, leveraging its closer relations with both entities relative to that of China in order to build broad markets.
It must also grow strong internal and regional markets within and near India. India’s neighbors should look to partner with India rather than China. A significant way that India’s technology sector can grow and become increasingly relevant in the global market even during the COVID-19 Pandemic is with government investment and support for innovation in key sectors. The Modi government and even the states should look to lay the groundwork for a period of resounding socioeconomic growth now rather than simply wait for the future.
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