The book discusses the pros and cons of the nationwide lockdown announced by Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, on 24 March 2020 to curb the spread of Coronavirus. It is a candid but balanced analysis of the lockdown on the economy at both the micro and macro levels. It studies the circumstances under which the lockdown was imposed and the consequences of this decision on the socio-economic horizon of India. It tries to analyse the justification of the lockdown for a country with eighty percent of its population dependent on government welfare schemes for survival.
The book looks at various economic facets that were distorted due to the lockdown and also does some crystal ball gazing of what the future will look with this new experience of working from home amid panic and fear as no one knows if the pandemic will return even if it seems to end. It includes twenty-one chapters, divided into four sections with two initial chapters. The standalone chapters in each section directly lay before the reader the issue and provide the commonly held view and then attempts to provide the counterview supported by facts. The book starts with a Prologue describing the way people in India look at the lockdown and the epidemic months after the economy was subjected to a panic exercise. The other chapters talk on various issues which came up during the lockdown and the unlocking process which caused considerable damage to the economy and more importantly to the morale of the common people.
As the virus will never be behind us and that we have to learn to live with the same, the question is whether the government will respond in a different way with each new wave.
Madan Sabnavis, B.A. (Hons. in Economics) from St. Stephen’s College (D.U.), M.A. (Economics) from Delhi School of Economics, has been a corporate economist since 1987. He is currently the Chief Economist with Bank of Baroda and has worked with erstwhile ICICI Limited, ICICI Bank, L&T, NCDEX, and CARE Ratings. In these 34 years’ career in various fields, he has picked up some experience in various industries and, hence, believes that he has some understanding on the practical aspects of the subject.
Being a non-conformist and, hence, a contrarian, he has tended to question and be critical rather than eulogize policies which is done well by other ‘opinion driving’ establishment economists. This has helped him to write over 2500 articles in publications like Financial Express, Mint, Business Standard, Business Line, Indian Express, Free Press Journal, and Economic Times besides First Post (in the past).
He is the author of four books entitled Macro Economics De-mystified, Eco Quirks, Economics of India: How to Fool All People for All Times, and Hits & Misses: The Indian Banking Story. His other interests are in English literature, classical music and new Age Western music.
