 "Sameer Narang, Chief Economist, Bank of Baroda")
The second wave of Covid-19 has stretched India’s health infrastructure. The economic impact as of now is far lower than what we saw in the first wave. In April 2020, the entire country was in complete lockdown.
Mobility data showed a two-third reduction in movement of people (excluding residence) from baseline level of February 2020. With people staying in their homes, India’s Q1FY21 GDP contracted by 24.4 per cent.
The restrictions went hand-in-hand with stimulus package, which covered reduction in interest rates, liquidity support, moratorium, and later, restructuring of loans by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), cash payments to migrants
