The world economy has been in shambles since the onset of Covid pandemic. The world countries have devised various innovative financial programs in order to strengthen their own economic response to the challenges posed by the Corona catastrophe.
This needs to be understood that if the government imposed an all-inclusive lockdown even just for a month, its effects on the economy would have been devastating. It would have led to the emergence of a modern day Economic Depression, which luckily didn’t happen.
The spasmodic and exclusive lockdown helped the stressed economy to breathe and maintain a static pattern with no fluctuations at all. Evidently, with further relaxations in the Covid lockdown restrictions, a hopeful upward trend was to be seen later on.
But there is an enormous difference between the first and second Covid wave. The number of deaths has increased manifold in this recent wave along with severity in the transmission. This all leads us to reflect on whether the opening up of markets in Kashmir division is a wise one or not.
The pandemic has certainly affected the business communities in the valley but what needs to be done is to bolster their hopes with courage with relief packages and amnesties in form of tax and bank debt waivers. But throwing markets open in the middle of the second wave is intriguing.
The reports exhibit that the Northern States in India may experience the rage of Second Covid wave up to mid-July which makes us question the current demand for opening the markets.
The administration needs to weigh every possible outcome of this decision, if taken. The situation must not be allowed to trail back towards spikes in infection and rising number of deaths.
The focus is needed to make vaccine drives more inclusive in all urban and rural areas alike. This is how herd immunity can be developed at an earliest but the fight against this contagion will continue for years to come.
