Junaid Ahmed also spoke about the increased need for dialogue between scientists and public policy experts to help strike a balance between saving lives and livelihood. (Representational)

World Bank India Country Director Junaid Ahmed said on Tuesday that the revival of global economies along with India, which have been hit by Covid-19 pandemic, will take time and the path to normalisation could be stretched for over two years.
He also said that a 4.5 per cent growth rate should be the benchmark set for the Indian economy for the coming years.

“The revival of the economy is dependent on how well India manages the pandemic. My sense is that we are in this for the next two years. It is not about a vaccine coming out by December and things becoming normal by February. It will take some time and growth will come back rationally. The benchmark should not be a 7 per cent growth rate but 4.5 per cent for the coming years,” said Dr Junaid Ahmad during a webinar organised by IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry on ‘Ways to Reboot the Indian Economy’.

He also spoke about the increased need for dialogue between scientists and public policy experts to help strike a balance between saving lives and livelihood.

“The dialogue between scientists and public policy experts seem to be taking place in silos. Epidemiologists say we need a lockdown because that is the way to save lives, public-police experts say that during lockdown, livelihood is lost. There was never a conversation between the two on how to manage the economy and the pandemic at the same time. No one can accept a trade off between lives and livelihoods because in a country like ours, livelihoods lost eventually become lives lost. Need to rethink these conversations between scientists and public-policy experts,” Ahmed said. He added that the state needs to invest in local governments to handle the challenges that have been thrown up by the current crisis.

“The future in terms of unlocking India lies in unlocking urban India. Around 55 per cent of Covid-19 cases in India are centered in seven to 10 urban centres and if your municipal public health (body) is not ready to deliver, you are not going to solve the problem. North Block cannot solve what is happening in Mumbai. You have to invest in local capability. India’s historic rise as a federal nation is one where the Centre has first emerged following the emergence of the states.

India’s federalism, however, has not yet solved the paradigm of the local government, Ahmad said.