Best of BS Opinion: Trouble for NBFCs, Covid-19 outbreak, and more

Here's a selection of Business Standard Opinion pieces for the day

Covid-19 is the crisis of the moment but many commentators have pointed to the opportunity it presents to reimagine a better future for India. In the last of their three-part series, economists Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian suggest “new permanent social contract” to ensure that no Indian should ever have to face in the future the plight that millions are facing today. Read it here. In other opinion, writers examine the consequences of an extended lockdown and the impact on the financial sector. Kanika Datta sums up the views.

With the extension of the lockdown, the second- and third-order effects have started to kick in. Debashis Basu outlines the signs of new crises. Read it here.

Exiting the lockdown will be as tricky as imposing it, says A K Bhattacharya, and it is vital for the government to ensure that the few gains from enforced social distancing are not frittered away. Read it here

Tamal Bandyopadhyay explains why the only way to save the financial system and economy is the Reserve Bank relaxing banks' asset classification norms. Read it here

Calls for fiscal stimulus and monetary overreach will not help deal with the pandemic’s economic consequences, argues Mihir Sharma. Read it here

The 21-day lockdown may well have helped contain the spread of the virus. But looking ahead, the top edit says the government should also be working on a blueprint of how to combine control and tracking of the spread of the virus alongside a partial restarting of economic activity. Read it here

The second edit makes the case for the central bank’s repayment moratorium on loans to be extended to NBFCs as well. Read it here

QUOTE OF THE DAY

‘Coronavirus may die but the virus of communal disharmony will be hard to kill when this is over’

Khalid Rasheed, chairman of Islamic Center of India