Economic Impacts of Covid-19 in India

ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF COVID-19 ON INDIA
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The Coronavirus, first discovered towards the end of 2019, has had unprecedented impacts on the various spheres of the globe. Its rapid spread and high mortality rates forced the local and international community to impose various containment policies. Among the policies include regional and international border lockdowns, which immensely impacted the economic development plans set forth by most governments. Despite easing the Coronavirus measures facilitated by the reduction of the spread and mortality rates and increased vaccination, countries are still struggling to recover from the losses incurred during the pandemic. India is one of the countries whose economy was significantly impacted. It was among the nations with the highest Coronavirus infection confirmed cases (over 2.5 million) and death rates (Gupta et al., 2020). The first case was discovered on January 30th 2020, in Kerala (PIB Delhi, 2020). The upsurge in the virus spread saw the government impose nationwide lockdowns from March 20th to curb community transmission (Kaushik et al., 2020). This study seeks to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic affected India’s economy until January 2022.
Changes in India’s Economy During the Coronavirus Pandemic
Chag et al. (2020) explain that the pandemic has devastated India’s economy. In the post-liberation period, India’s most significant economic decline was experienced in 1980, which amounted to 5.2%. Regarding economic contraction, the fiscal year 2020/2021 was the worst. The first Coronavirus-confirmed case in India on January 30th 2020, saw an upsurge in cases in subsequent months. From April to June of 2020, the GDP dropped by 24.4%. The following months showed some signs of recovery. For instance, the unemployment rate rose from 6.7% in March to 26% in April but dropped to pre-pandemic rates from mid-June. The National Income Estimates report published in March 2021 indicated that the GDP declined by 7.4% from July to September 2020. However, the overall economic decline rate in the 2020/2021 financial year was 7.3 %. Before the pandemic, India’s economy was doing better than most countries worldwide. However, its economy dropped lower than other nations following the pandemic. This is explained in the chart below.
Source: World Economic Outlook, International Monetary Fund, April 2...