Hyderabad: The second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has adversely impacted the lives and livelihoods across the country. According to official data, India recorded more than 2.81 crore infections so far and over 3.31 lakh deaths were reported.
As the country is staring at a possible third wave of the pandemic, Eenadu Associate Editor N Viswa Prasad spoke to Pronab Sen, the first Chief Statistician of India, on a range of issue including vaccination policy, the impact of the pandemic on the economy and unemployment situation.
Edited Excerpts -
In comparison to the first wave of Covid-19, how has the second wave been impacting the economy?
During the first wave of Covid-19 infections, rural India was not much affected. Our entire economy was supported by the rural economy last year.
But during the current second wave, the supply chains have been adversely affected in rural areas as the fear factor is dominant.
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This might not affect the farm production but is likely to hurt farmers’ income and may lead to shortages in horticultural products resulting in a rise in food prices.
How do you see the unemployment scenario in the country?
The latest data suggests that the unemployment rate has gone up to a whopping 14 per cent even in rural areas which have rarely witnessed more than a 3 per cent unemployment rate. This suggests a fairly strong hit on livelihoods.
What are your views on the current Covid-19 vaccination policy which makes the State governments procure the much-needed vaccines in a large number?
The Central Government is procuring vaccines from manufacturers at a price lower than the production cost. To make up for this deficit, the vaccine makers are forced to sell vaccines to state governments and private hospitals at a higher price.
This policy of the Centre has led to a surge in vaccine prices.
Besides, several private organizations are procuring a large number of doses for their employees. The state governments are not in a position to compete with them.
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This is an extremely unhealthy situation. This situation could have been avoided with proper planning.
Instead of asking the states to purchase from the open market, the Centre must procure and allocate to states.
In your view, what is the effectiveness of the stimulus package announced last year? What should the government do to improve the current economic situation?
A large part of the package announced last year was meant to give credit support to existing firms. MSMEs and large enterprises were getting a lot of additional credit and they also availed moratorium on repayment of past dues.
Under the second large component, the Government is paying off the money it owes to others such as Food Corporation of India (FCI), Fertiliser Corporation of India and small and medium enterprises. This is a very good move because the payments help these units to survive.
However, in terms of demand stimulus, the amount has been very low.
As far as the present situation is concerned, the Centre has a very limited role to play as the current lockdowns are localised.
So, the focus of the Centre should be to make national networks and supply chains smooth and seamless which individual state governments can’t achieve.
Last year, the primary responsibility was on state governments to provide health services and income support to affected families.
So, they cut back on expenditure due to a drop in tax resources. In my view, this is the time the Central Government is financing infrastructure projects taken up by the States.
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On the efficacy of direct benefit transfers to Covid-19 affected families, he said that we don’t have the much-needed database so that money can be transferred in a targeted way.
The pandemic has exposed fault lines in our health systems. What should the government do now?
Building the necessary health infrastructure and resources is a long term process. The real issue is with the personnel. To train a doctor takes a minimum of 4-5 years. So, we should have a long term strategy.
If we can recall, the Centre in the 1990s and early 2000s decided to convert every district hospital into a teaching hospital. Unfortunately, this particular initiative was put on the backburner.
