If the poverty trend does set in, then the fiscal effort will have to be greater Over the last week or so, several rating agencies and multilateral institutions have revised their forecasts for global growth and countries to factor in the economic fallout of covid-19—the once-in-a-century pandemic.
In the case of India, the most pessimistic projection pegs the growth in the current year to about 2%, while the optimists maintain it will top 4%.
Regardless of the exact growth numbers, it is clear that the pandemic-triggered lockdown will result in an economic shock. At the same time, India, with its high population density combined with poor hygiene standards and creaky health infrastructure, is very vulnerable to the pandemic, which