Covid-19 and Indian economy: Do please light your lamps as lights go out

After the health crisis, India's fiscal stress will increase as revenue falls and crisis-driven expenditure goes up; some key numbers may get worse than in the 2008 financial crisis, writes T N Ninan

There are three phases on a standard growth curve, like one that plots the progress of Covid-19. The first is when the number of new cases increases every day at a steady or accelerating rate. The second is when the rate of growth declines; the total number of cases continues to increase, but the curve flattens. The third phase is when the tally of new cases daily stops increasing altogether and begins to decline. Seven of the top 10 countries that account for 80 per cent of the million cases so far are into the second or third phase. The