As the second wave of the pandemic subsides and economic activity revives, those in charge are confident that the economy will shrug off its impact.
The chief economic advisor has said so.
The Reserve Bank of India governor has indicated as much.
They are likely to be proved right.
The merchants of gloom, who saw the health crisis as spelling disaster for the Indian economy, will be proved wrong.
At its peak, the number of cases in the second wave was four times that in the first wave.
The first wave saw the Indian economy shrink by 7.3 per cent.
As casualties were much greater in the second wave, some were quick to conclude that it would inflict an even greater toll on the economy.
The second wave, however, promises to be far less severe in its economic impact.
Hard-hearted as it may sound, there is no correlation between the loss of lives and national output.
This truth was best exemplified in World War II.
The Soviet Union lost an estimated 21 million lives in combatants alone, not to speak of the loss of civilian lives. Yet, industrial output, driven by wartime needs, boomed.