IMPACT OF COVID 19 ON INDIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The world is currently undergoing repeated episodes of lockdown due to Covid 19 virus pandemic since from the first case detected in Wuhan city of China in December 2019. India being a developing country with world’s 17 percent population is not an exception to the Covid 19 virus spread and is one of the most severely affected countries in the world. India has witnessed repeated episodes of lockdown in response to recurring waves of Covid 19 spread. For a developing country like India which has world’s 17 percent population residing, the challenge is not only to save lives of people but to keep economic activities continue in order to provide employment to daily wage earners so that they can feed their families. Central government is also in need of financial resources in order to provide healthcare services and keep continuing other social and welfare schemes. The belligerent attitude of neighboring countries also pose different challenges and the government has to make huge expenditure on defense to face these challenges. In order to keep these necessities going, the economy has to keep growing at a steady rate. But lockdown has posed some serious challenges to keep economic activities going. This paper describe the impact of lockdowns on Indian industries in relation to various economic variables such as GDP, GNP, inflation, fiscal deficit, IIP etc.