AHMEDABAD: Citing intensified liquidity crunch after the Covid-19 crisis and a slowing economic growth, professor Sebastian Morris of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), underlined the urgent need to lift lockdown in India. Addressing an online public lecture on Deepening Crisis of the Indian Economy, Morris said that the lockdown only helps one gear up the medical system in India and nothing beyond.
“Demand slowdown isn’t the only problem; we will never be able to restore it fully. The situation is much more severe. If the right measures are not taken now, the financial system would collapse. The crisis is how does one prevent a collapse of the logistics system and the production system and bring back demand. There is an urgent need to lift all lockdowns. In India, they have served no purpose because they are territorial in nature,” said Morris.
“We’re locking down areas which doesn’t help. Instead, lockdowns can be functional with certain activities allowed in a certain area and some of them prohibited,” he said.
According to Morris, the Covid-19 crisis is to stay for long. “Better healthcare systems need to be put in place through an integrated approach of private and public sector. At the same time, improving healthcare and sanitation infrastructure going forward will also be crucial in the fight against Covid-19,” he said.
Morris said that physical distancing is the way forward which will need to be enforced by combined efforts of government, police and the NGOs. He also recommended the need for migrant labourers to be brought back.
“We need a phased programme to bring the migrants back to urban clusters. Initially the industries must create facilities so that physical distancing can be maintained. At the same time NGOs can work with companies and industrial clusters to ensure physical distancing of the workforce and then migrants could be brought back to work so that the production can be revived,” said Morris.
“Demand slowdown isn’t the only problem; we will never be able to restore it fully. The situation is much more severe. If the right measures are not taken now, the financial system would collapse. The crisis is how does one prevent a collapse of the logistics system and the production system and bring back demand. There is an urgent need to lift all lockdowns. In India, they have served no purpose because they are territorial in nature,” said Morris.
“We’re locking down areas which doesn’t help. Instead, lockdowns can be functional with certain activities allowed in a certain area and some of them prohibited,” he said.
According to Morris, the Covid-19 crisis is to stay for long. “Better healthcare systems need to be put in place through an integrated approach of private and public sector. At the same time, improving healthcare and sanitation infrastructure going forward will also be crucial in the fight against Covid-19,” he said.
Morris said that physical distancing is the way forward which will need to be enforced by combined efforts of government, police and the NGOs. He also recommended the need for migrant labourers to be brought back.
“We need a phased programme to bring the migrants back to urban clusters. Initially the industries must create facilities so that physical distancing can be maintained. At the same time NGOs can work with companies and industrial clusters to ensure physical distancing of the workforce and then migrants could be brought back to work so that the production can be revived,” said Morris.
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