India has a good post-crisis opportunity to secure long-term growth if the Centre refocuses policy In less than a week, India will be looking forward to emerging from the lockdown that covid-19 forced upon it.
Having persuaded a country of over 1.3 billion people to lock themselves indoors, with admirable success, the government now has to do an about-face.
It has to cajole and encourage millions of Indians to cross the Lakshman rekha (do-not-cross line) so that millions of others can continue to stay safely and sustainably indoors.
For that, I would suggest the following: First, the government should announce a package to provide cash to businesses without many restrictive eligibility criteria—soft loans with a repayment schedule starting