AAYUSH PANWAR | After the world economies hitting the rock bottom and the world being in fire of the deadly weapon like COVID 19, will India see this as an opportunity to establish itself as a world leader, guide the world and fulfill its 5 trillion economy goal?
Despite being a deadly situation in many countries like that of Italy and Iran the conditions are not so worse but may be. If the situation becomes favourable than the government should see this as an opportunity to capture the market.
The country can use its huge population in a better way. The country like China have already started working and is trying to capture the market. This is like the same thing that have already happened once in the history as till the 19th century Britain was considered as the super power in the world but due to the outbreak of the World War I Britain lost its power and USA became the world leader. After this USSR also gained some power but lost its shine due to disintegration. Now the entire Europe is burning in the fire of Corona which provides an opportunity to India to have an upper hand in the world. It is like a cluster of opportunities that India can see.
Seeing it from the point of view of economics though it is a hard time for the country, the benefit that it had brought with it is regarding the rate of inflation. With the decrease in the demand of the products, the task of the government to maintain the rate of inflation is completely solved. Further the government have announced the relief packages for various sectors so that they are not affected by the ongoing problems which will mainly affect the MSME, SHG’s, the women under the Ujjawala Yojana and at the last all the poor. But these are not sufficient measures. The base or the structure of the economy is controlled by the small businessman and as usual the government had not done anything for them. Once these sectors of the economy are supported, it can bring blossoms.
Coming to the point of law it is the time for the government to make laws that govern the country in the times of such pandemics. The law that the country is using is a British age law Epidemic Disease Act, 1897 which was made to combat the plague in the presidency of Bombay. This law does not grant powers to the central government to take the necessary actions. The law was effective at that time but now since India has a unitary form of government with a strong central control such laws are obsolete today. For the first time after the independence the country had felt a need to make the laws regarding the biological issues. The government should try to control the situation and make the laws that can govern the whole country in such a situation.
Another view regarding this can be of political nature. The current government can take the benefit of this if the government could solve this problem by the current lockdown. Many countries like USA and Pakistan have even denied to have any lockdown in there countries. Donald Trump had said in one of his statement that to have lockdown is a way to remove him from his chair. For the country like india with huge population, low literacy and less health care facilities as compared with the European counterparts, if it safely comes out from Corona, the current government will be definitely benefited from this in the coming elections.
At last Corona is a way for the country to establish itself and guide the world to come out from such biological problems and establish itself as a world leader.
Aayush Panwar is an undergraduate student of Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar. He can be reached at aayushpanwar1209@gmail.com
Photo Source: Business Line
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