V. Anantha Nageswaran and Gulzar Natarajan write in the Swarajyamag about what India’s policy responses can be. They advise erring on the side of too much, rather than too little:
…the nature of the crisis threatens to create economic, social and health distress among the low-income and poor households. This can have potentially adverse consequences for social and economic stability for many years to come.
Therefore, Indian policymakers have not much to lose by tearing up the conventional playbook. The risk-reward ratio is in favour of being bold rather than timid.
Even if they are not as effective or, worse, even if they backfire, history will not judge them harshly for trying harder and unconventionally to support the economy now.
Please go through the entire article carefully, it is worth your time.
Niranjan Rajadhakshya informs us about the history of quantity planning in India.
Just consider some of the key questions that are being asked right now. How many ventilators are available? Are there ample food stocks? Can more hospital beds be made available? How many masks be produced in the next few weeks? Can the production of testing kits be ramped up? It’s all about quantities, quantities, quantities.
P Sainath has some suggestions (they come towards the end of this article)
The very first thing that needs doing: preparing for emergency distribution of our close to 60 million tons of ‘surplus’ foodgrain stocks. And reaching out at once to the millions of migrant workers and other poor devastated by this crisis. Declare all presently shut community spaces (schools, colleges, community halls and buildings) to be shelters for stranded migrants and the homeless.
Shankkar Aiyar in The New Indian Express on the triage of relief, rescue and recovery.
And finally, Gautam Chikermane with 10 different suggestions, of which I find the last one to be currently dramatically under-rated:
Embed entrepreneurs and managers in crisis management. The corporate sector is not just about money or physical infrastructure. It is equally about infusing efficiency in projects, operations, crises management, innovation and entrepreneurship – that’s how they are trained, that’s what they do, that’s who they are. While hard money will flow easily, this expertise must not be held back by turf or administrative frictions. Patriotism doesn’t have a net worth and is not restricted to one sector (the government) alone. A start can be made by setting up a task force of technology entrepreneurs and big businesses that can support government initiatives with knowledge and insights.
EconForEverybody 