THE ECONOMY IS SICK

The slowdown has become a most debilitating recession. It will take some urgent and daring interventions from the government to pull the economy out of this deep hole

- M.G. ARUN AND SHWWETA PUNJ with ANILESH S. MAHAJAN

Mahadev Kadam, 48, wears a stony look as he sits in his small textile shop in Panvel in Navi Mumbai, watching the pouring rain on an August morning as he prepares for yet another day of scanty footfall. He says there was no business from end-March to end-June because of the lockdowns ordered by the central government and local administrations, and though business seemed to pick up in the initial days after his shop reopened in end-June, that soon fizzled out.

Huddled in a chair, behind a rope tied across his shop’s entrance to stop customers from going in—as instructed by local authorities—he says he can’t remember a worse time in his three decades in business. “Forget replenishing stock,” he says, “I haven’t even sold out the old stock I bought in the new year. Even the Ganesh festival (which began on August 22) hasn’t helped.” He has bills to pay—Rs 8,000 monthly rental for his shop—and with the three-month moratorium he availed on a personal loan ending in August, he faces an uncertain future.