Lives or livelihood: Insights from locked-down India due to COVID19

• Main Authors: Gagan Deep Sharma, Mandeep Mahendru
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2020-01-01
• Series: Social Sciences and Humanities Open
• Subjects: Economics; Health economics; Socioeconomic status; Global health; Asian
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590291120300255

India is the second most populous country of the world, counted among the most rapidly growing economies of the world. Realizing that a fast spread of COVID19 in India would wipe-out a huge part of the world population, the government of India found itself in a dilemma of whether to save lives or livelihoods. Prioritizing lives for livelihood, the government announced to lockdown the country. This measure is supposed to leave a lasting impact on the economy of the country, which is evident from a cut in the GDP growth forecast by Moody’s (from 5.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent for calendar year 2020) within ten days of the earlier projection. This article suggests measures to the government of India to balance between saving lives and sustaining the economy.