Health and Economic Impacts of Corona and Corona-Related Lockdown on India

Occurrence of pandemics is not new to the world. In the world, four pandemics have occurred recently. They are: Spanish flu (1918), Asian flu (1957), Hong Kong flu (1968), and Swine flu (2009). The origin of three of the four pandemics, apart from the "Black Death" that occurred in 1347 is China. The present corona virus has also emerged from China. It threatens all Homo sapiens as it is spreading at a very high speed. It spread to all countries of the world within three months. In India, though deaths are not much high, the number of infected persons is high. To contain its spread, lockdown was announced on the 25th of March 2020. During the lockdown, every engine of growth has stopped firing. And so India's GDP is expected to reach a very low growth rate in 2020-21. The job loss is estimated between 122 and 200 millions. It resulted in the loss of livelihood to millions and a rise in poverty rate. As there was no work for migrant labourers, thousands of them tried to move to their native states by walk. It resulted in many deaths. Thus, the health and the economic impacts of corona on India are very serious.