+India Lockdown: In The Wake Of Growing Economy Crisis

India being a vast country of 1.3 billion people has been lockdown indoors due to the Covid-19 virus. India is facing a great economic loss nationwide under the 21-days lockdown period. The present situation has become very crucial and critical for most of the unorganized sector. They are under a great loss where daily wagers and labourers are affected the most. However, various markets, dealers, and suppliers got drastically hit during this lockdown period. 

As announced and instructed by the Government of India that only the emergency and the critical sector will be functioning during this lockdown. They are only allowed to function. This includes hospitals, police authority, media, telecom industry, drug store, food essential stores, banks and ATMs, petrol pumps, post office, the supply of gas, transportation of essential commodities, and others. However, small-scale business or unorganized sectors have been instructed to stop their function completely during this lockdown period. 

Moreover, the Indian logistic completely falls under the unorganized sector. In this manner, the area is seriously hit as a large portion of the business players doesn't have any reinforcement, recuperation plan or discontinuous activity plan. India is significantly determined by a conventional methodology of trucking, loading & unloading, and handling of products. This part lacks in mechanical advancement. Subsequently, the absence of modernized instruments and tools for disinfecting the merchandise/supplies before delivery may additionally add to the issues.

Country’s largest e-commerce companies like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, and Nykaa has suspended their logistic service for sellers on their platform. However, due to the rising case of Coronavirus, the largest e-commerce companies in India have restricted their services completely. This has drastically affected the e-commerce sector. On the other hand, Amazon has said that they will only look into the delivery of ‘critical items’. This includes essential items like hygiene, health care, household staples, and personal safety products. However, other online portal like Nykaa, Lenskart, and Myntra has stopped their services as they don’t fall under the ‘essential or necessity commodities’. While Nykaa has now comes up with a new plan to run their business successfully during this lockdown by providing essentials. Now, Nykaa is taking pre-paid orders for basic essentials like sanitary napkins, hand sanitisers, sterile napkins, personal hygiene products, and much other. Also, Lenskart, which has set up mechanized processing forms, is providing eyeglasses and contact lenses with a discount of 30%.

Also, Ola is providing financial aid by donating 20 crores for the driver during the Coronavirus lockdown. They have stepped forward in collecting funds through crowdfunding. With their Ola app, they have come with the ‘Drive the Driver Fund’ option where they will raise fund of Rs 50 crore through crowdfunding. This raised fund through crowdfunding will go to the cab, auto-rickshaw, taxi drivers, and kaali-peeli taxi employed by the Ola Company.

Moreover, Bhavish Agarwal the founder of Ola Company will forgo his 1-year salary towards the fund. This great move has given a sense of relief and satisfaction among the drivers of the Uber Company to the fullest. 

Moreover, the RBI has made a postponement of loan EMIs to the common man. RBI has instructed the banks to provide the 3-months moratorium due to the Coronavirus lockdown. In this plan, the customers will get a deferment of EMIs with an increased period of 3 months. This has brought great relief to the customers who might have found difficulty in paying their EMIs during this lockdown period. To combat the hard times, the government has also extended the submission of IT file returns for FY 18-19 to June 2020. The decision was made in context with India’s 21 days total lockdown.

Not only this, but even the PAN-AAdhar linking deadline was also extended to June 30. 2020 from March 31, 2020.

This was perhaps the first time when the govt has extended the deadline of ITR. The COVID 19 pandemic has impacted hard on the Indian government and to combat that the 21-day lockdown was necessary and to make that successful the government has made these minor adjustments to suit the hard times.

Salman Khan has played the role of ‘real hero’ during this lockdown period for the industry workers. He has taken the initiative of providing financial aid to the industry workers. These workers are the daily wage workers of the film industry. The superstar has assured to pay 25,000 daily wage workers. However,

Salman through his ‘Being Human’ Foundation connected with their association to support the industry laborers. The Being Human Foundation of Salman Khan will provide financial help to these workers. Apart from financial help, they are also providing the workers with a huge ration packet during this lockdown period. 

The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Scheme has come up with a relief package that will benefit about 8 crore poor people. It will incorporate money transfer and food security to the poor people of India. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at a press meet in New Delhi, ‘Everyone will get free 5 kilograms of rice or wheat consistently for the following three months.’ she also stated, ‘including a kilogram of pulse per family will also be given each month to these families for the following three months.’

Across the country, due to lockdown, the supplies of laborers have also come into a standstill. The deliveries of essential items are taking a long time to deliver due to the shortage of laborers. In that case, the companies largely affected due to this. The limited availability of transport facilities has brought down a shortage of laborers nationwide. Sometimes they need to reach their workplace by foot. In some extreme cases, where they reside in the informal sector it becomes very exhausting for them and thus results in lower productivity. However, in this way, both the workers and the companies of the unorganized sector are suffering the economic crisis largely. 

In other different sectors, micros, small or medium enterprises (MSMEs) are battling to pay their debt of bills and services.

Also, even large organizations are also facing a shortage of money, overstretched balance reports, lower capital use, and no interest. The present condition is very critical at the moment as the growth rate is already very low and unemployment is on the rise.