Indeed killing the virus is priority

Indeed killing the virus is priority

But what’s the plan to mitigate lockdown cost?

So, the government’s strategy to combat the Covid-19 pandemic is out: 21 days of continuous lockdown. Except for emergency service workers, the country will stay at home. In the absence of either the capacity to treat millions of patients in intensive care, or to test every infected person, trace every one of that individual’s contacts and test them for the virus, social isolation is the only way to contain the virus and prevent its massive spread. So, we welcome the prime minister’s announcement of the lockdown and personal appeal to every citizen to comply with it and suffer the hardship for the sake of themselves, their families and the nation.

However, this strategy of fighting the virus brings economic activity to a standstill in very many sectors. We simultaneously need a strategy to tackle this grave contingency. Some large businesses can survive such cessation of business and loss of revenue and emerge from the lockdown fairly intact. Smaller businesses and self-employed people cannot. What is the strategy to prevent these people from falling into ruin? Is there a fiscal package on the lines of the US one, amounting to 5% of GDP? Will RBI buy corporate bonds and commercial paper, on the lines of the US Fed, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England? Will small businesses get credit guarantees from the government so that banks can roll over their loans? Will the government announce cash benefit transfers to the poor, to see them through for a month? How will all this be financed?

After having reduced the number of new cases to next to nothing, China is all set to resume normalcy and become the world’s manufacturing hub once again. That experience suggests India, too, can emerge from the lockdown firing on all cylinders. But we need clarity on how we will tide over the next three weeks. How will supply lines of daily necessities be shielded from border closures and clampdowns on warehouses? How is the fruit and vegetable trade to surmount obstacles to the movement of their perishable goods? We hope we will have credible answers to these questions, too.