The collapse of the healthcare system amidst the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the country, poor vaccination rate and lack of efficient government strategy to tackle the pandemic are considered the major reasons for the sudden GDP downfall as opposed to it’s normalcy, since the country started recovering from its first phase of Covid-19.
Social media strategist and digital marketing consultant, Ramneek Sidhu has been cautious about this observation owing to the health factors and environment in the country. He says,
“The Indian government’s lockdown approach and strong consumer behaviour may help to control and decrease the negative economic impact of the second wave. But considering the healthcare systems, if they continue to be burdened with cases and states are forced to impose stringent restrictions, the GDP growth rate may be downgraded further.”
Although, the restrictions imposed are mostly on the tertiary sector like retail, hotel, personal services, education etc, those economic activities that have been digitalised like IT services, telecom, financial services and retail and distribution may not be impacted largely. But still, there is a need to be vigilant, so that proper preparation can be initiated to fight the case of unexpected financial downfall, if any.
As Ramneek Sidhu observes, one of the biggest impacts of the lockdowns in 2020 was a sharp rise in unemployment, especially in the unorganised sectors. In April 2020, unemployment in India spiked to 23%. In the current state of the financial crisis that the country is already in, with rising unemployment even before the arrival of the corona pandemic, if more adequate and sudden measures are not taken up by the government along with the handling of healthcare sectors, the country shall soon be undergoing a recession.
Ramneek Sidhu is a 26 year old digital marketing consultant who started his own company, “The digital kings” in the year 2016 in UAE, as a first step towards his dream of creating a name within the business community on a long term basis. The rising cases of Covid-19 has put this marketing strategist into thoughts about the effect of the economic downfall and has already started taking measures to brace the effects of the second phase.
Adding to his thoughts about the crisis that we are in, Sidhu says, “This economic uncertainty is unlikely to decline rapidly unless the COVID caseload begins to decline. The main objective of the governments of different states should be to expand the relief provided, ensure the availability of basic medical supplies, and work towards a dramatic ramp-up of the vaccination programme.”