While several western nations have the economic capacity to deal with the medical and nutritional requirements for their citizens during the Coronavirus outbreak, India is amongst the countries that have trouble with it. Several analysts argue that the economic resources devoted to fighting coronavirus might not be available to India if the number of cases crosses a certain threshold.
Keeping this in mind, the Government of India ordered a nation-wide lockdown on the March 24 for twenty-one days. It has now been extended to May 3. Despite early suggestions that India could keep its total cases under 10,000, as of April 14, the country has already seen more than 11,555 cases with over 396 deaths, and it is not assured that the curve has flattened.
With signs of community transmission appearing, the Government and the civil society have expressed concern regarding the Government’s strategy to fund the resources required to battle the virus effectively. India has very little allocated towards emergency or disaster management at its disposal.
The Prime Minister’s Relief Fund has all of the Rs 3,800 crore (barely $500 million at the current rate). India could “dig into the State Disaster Response Fund’s (SDRF) Rs 20,000 crore provision for the year as defined by the Finance Commission every year (but last year’s grant-in-aid towards SDRF stood at just Rs 10,937 crore). Or, Centre could draw from the National Disaster Response Fund’s (NDRF) Rs 25,000 crore provision which is meant to supplement the SDRF.” The Finance Minister has announced a 1.70 Lakh crore package in the form of food grains and cash transfers for the poor. The Finance Ministry is also said to be working on a second relief package to revive the economy.
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