As the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic subsided in India, the country’s economy was showing signs of recovery in early 2021. Unfortunately, the country was severely hit by the second wave of the pandemic forcing many states to enforce lockdowns, which led to reduced mobility and limited economic activity.
As a result India’s GDP also shrunk by a quarter during the financial year 2020-21 as compared to the previous year owing to the unprecedented halt of economic activity.
Like most other nations across the globe, India’s health infrastructure was overstretched beyond its existing capacity although the government took every possible measure to ramp up arrangements, having gained some experience from the first wave of the pandemic.
However, it felt too insufficient for the overwhelming spread and severity of the new variants of the virus so much so that the daily cases reached their peak in the first week of May this year, the highest tally being 4,14,188 on May 7 with a daily death count crossing and remaining above the 4,000-mark for many weeks thereafter.
As the situation became alarming, the Indian government pitched in by providing short-term financial support to the people in distress as well as announcing long-term measures for ensuring economic growth. The budget also reflected the government’s emphasis on public spending. However, to deal with the immediate crisis, despite all financial burdens, the government of India took a slew of welfare measures, prominent among them are as follows: