These are interesting times, indeed. In fact, the silly season is here and seems as if it’s here to stay. How else would you justify the very fact that today when one hears the word ‘recovery’ it’s not only confined to a medical meaning? But rather has a lingering effect on the state of a country’s economy and therefore, concerns the lair of economic activity.
Today, at least, for India, the usage of the term recovery most likely consists the ebb of medical healthcare. And what’s more? It doesn’t stop at that!
It’s a common fact that even before something as unexpected and upsetting as the Coronavirus-ridden lockdown even came to strike the country, the state of the Indian economy was anything but stable.
There’s long been a sense that ‘all’s not been right!’ Isn’t it? The loss of jobs, the feeling of the next big recession setting in, juxtapositioned by some really uncanny and half-hearted attempts by the existing government to set the record straight stating-“All was well“- led to a feeling that actually it was anything but that.
A simple example was the state of the country’s GDP which suggested there was a long way to go. Never before has the reason to worry seemed so prominent. And then, bang came another seemingly irrational reply from the Indian Finance Minister who actually made a public statement that- a dip in the GDP is actually good for the economic growth!
What was that about?
Nonetheless, a latest piece of report published in The Economic Times suggests that all’s not exactly wrong about the country. And that, there are those parts of India where an economic recovery of sorts is being felt; and that it points to a collective of as many as five states across the nation.
So what exactly is the reason for this optimism?
Well, if you were to believe the latest report published on ET, then it points to this very fact:
Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Karnataka have seen a pickup in activity, based on an analysis of indicators such as power consumption, traffic movement, arrival of farm products at wholesale markets and Google mobility data, Garima Kapoor, an economist at Elara Securities in Mumbai, wrote in a note.
Some of the most industrialized states such as Maharashtra and Gujarat were trailing because of tough measures still in place to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, she said.
What’s more?
This isn’t some random declaration all of a sudden. The collective strength of very vibrant and geographically divergent states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Karnataka and Punjab suggests an important finding.
And surely, this must arrest the attention of the economists: apparently this cluster contributes by as much as 27 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
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Now in what’s believed to be a serious economic slowdown, the world’s greatest fear at the moment, this comes across as a positive development, one that inspires and offers much-needed respite from all that economic calamity.
Furthermore, this is what Garima Kapoor, the noted economist had to share in the said matter: “The best stimulus India can have is resumption of normal economic activity. The country is witnessing an improvement in activity but it remains sporadic.”