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Are current Govt efforts enough to revive economy?


India has tried to revive the economy by giving a boost to the supply side. Many times when the problem of demand-side comes, the government attempts to resolve this by fixing the supply side, and this, in turn, sets things. But the current scenario is unique; usual methods might not work.
To analyze this problem, we need to divide customers based on their disposable income and suppliers by their industry. For daily wage workers, laborers, vendors, workers on contract, and for some regular wages workers whose jobs got effected due to Covid-19, there will be a lack of demand. And, since in India the majority of the workforce is under an unorganized sector, this cohort may amount to more than 90% of the population and more than 50% of disposable income (rough idea). In the near future, too, it will be hard to come back on track, and even if they do, there will always be the apprehension of job loss, and hence disposable income will be hugely affected.
For the rest of people, majorly regular wage workers and employees in the IT sector and all those whose income did not get affected because of the current scenario, expenses must have got low in the current situation.  Their disposable income must have increased or remained the same. But will they come out to spend? They would also feel apprehensive about the current scenario and their job and hence would like to continue saving.
So now the question is, will boost to supply-side help in reviving the economy? It will help businesses to sustain, but to spur up demand, the government needs to take some other initiatives. Can a reduction in GST over some non-essentials like cars, TVs, Laptops, etc. for some brief interval help revive the economy. This might lead to an increase in demand for a short period of reduced GST rates and again back to normal when these rates restored. But this can give a much necessary boost to the industry.
Not all sectors can be revived at this time. For example, the tourism industry, which is a good source of income for hotels, transportation industries like Ola, Uber, etc., which employs millions of drivers, will remain impacted. The government should try to employ these workers in the alternate sector. As the demand for hospitals and nursing staff would increase in the near future, the government might try to use hotels for these services, ola/uber for medical transportation purposes and train some people in nursing. The government can also work in strengthening health infrastructure, roads, and other projects, which could help businesses increase productivity in the long run, thereby providing necessary jobs.
The problem of migration was felt in a significant way in the whole country. Instead of just trying to bring workers in mainstream industries and cities, they should try to come up with projects in many more towns and employ workers there.

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