AGRICULTURE SHINING BEACON OF HOPE FOR INDIAN ECONOMY AMID COVID-19 PANDEMIC
SME World|June 2021
Contrary to what many have believed, COVID-19 has hit us back with a renewed vigour, infecting more people and testing the healthcare infrastructure more than ever before.
Rajesh Aggarwal
AGRICULTURE SHINING BEACON OF HOPE FOR INDIAN ECONOMY AMID COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The silver-lining that appeared with the news of vaccines is under duress as India crossed the 3-lakh new cases every day. The national capital Delhi decided to extend the lockdown by another week while many other states have implemented partial restrictions or lockdowns. Lockdowns are very strict measures that leave a deep dent in the health of the economy – noted researcher and columnist Harsh Mander called it 'a calamitous shrinkage of the economy.

Tejal Kanitkar, associate professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, estimated that the total loss of output due to lockdown would be between INR 40 lakh crore and INR 66 lakh crore, equivalent to about 20 to 32 per cent of India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). All sectors such as manufacturing, mining and quarrying, construction and real estate, trade, electricity, gas and water supply, transport and communication, hotels, finance and insurance, business services, community and social services, went into redin the last fiscal year, except for agriculture. While agricultural input materials for the Kharif season were and are out of the ambit of lockdown, harvesting season last year saw some difficulty in the form of labour shortage and market closure as most of the migrant workforce chose to leave for their hometowns. With the second wave, spiralling cases, and imminent lockdowns, this year too, agriculture may remain the only bright spot in the Indian economy.

Opportunityin agriculture

This story is from the June 2021 edition of SME World.

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This story is from the June 2021 edition of SME World.

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