Munawar Zaman
Press TV, New Delhi
The second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has put an immense pressure on India’s economy as many experts in the country have called for additional money printing by the country’s central bank to boost expenditure. The slowing economy has also prompted unemployment crises in the world’s second most populous nation.
The Covid-19 pandemic has hampered India’s ambition of double digit growth by 2022, in its latest report the world bank has slashed the country’s growth forecast to 8.3 percent from 10.1 percent estimated earlier. The service sector is the hardest hit the report added, stressing on higher spending on infrastructure, rural development, and healthcare. The ongoing economic turmoil sparked by the pandemic has dragged millions in poverty and unemployment.
In recent weeks the government announced a set of policies related to spending after a pandemic deteriorated the economic prospectus; the central bank also announced measures for micro, small and medium businesses.
Over the last few months India has been struggling with a ferocious second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic with around 400,000 daily cases and thousands of deaths. Hospitals were reeling under a shortage of space oxygen beds and vaccines. This prompted the government to announce more stringent lockdowns which resulted in huge economic costs for the world’s second most populous nation where millions rely on daily wages. Migrant workers were the hardest hit.