Prime
Minister Narendra Modi believes India can still achieve $5 trillion
economy target by 2024 despite Covid-19. In his first interview, after the
outbreak of the pandemic, the PM says his reforms drive will continue but
states must also compete to attract investment.
It’s
been seven months since India launched its fight against coronavirus through the first lockdown in March. What’s your
assessment on how we have fared?
I
am sure we all agree that this virus is something unknown, nothing like what
has happened earlier in the past. So, while tackling this new unknown enemy,
our response also evolves.
I am no health expert but my assessment is based on numbers. I think we should
assess our coronavirus fight against the metric of how many lives we are able
to save. Our case-fatality ratio is among the lowest in the world and the
deaths per million is much lower than what is seen in many developed nations.
The
virus is proving to be very fickle. At one time, some places like Gujarat were
seen as hot spots while the situation seemed to be under control in Kerala,
Karnataka etc. After a few months, things have improved in Gujarat but turning
for the worse in Kerala.
This is why I feel there is no room for complacency. I stressed the same in my
recent message to the nation on October 20 that the only way forward is to take
precautions such as wearing mask, hand washing and social distancing because
‘Jab tak dawai nahin, tab tak dhilai nahin.’
But
has it broadly panned out the way you expected or have you had to improvise and
innovate constantly?
We
decided to be proactive and introduce a timely nationwide lockdown. When we
introduced a lockdown, the total number of cases was in a few hundreds, unlike
many countries that adopted a lockdown when the cases were in the thousands. We
imposed lockdown at a very critical point in the pandemic trajectory.
We not only got the broad timing of various phases of lockdown right, we also
got the unlock process right and much of our economy is also coming back on
track. The data for August and September indicates that.
India
followed a preemptive, proactive, graded, whole-of-government and
whole-of-society approach to tackle the pandemic. India has taken a
science-driven approach in response to Covid-19 pandemic in the country. Such
an approach proved beneficial.
Studies now show that this response helped avoiding a situation which could
have led to rapid spread of the virus with many more deaths. In addition to the
timely lockdown, India was among the first countries to mandate wearing of
masks, use a contact-tracing app and deploy rapid antigen tests.
For a pandemic of this dimension, it would not have been possible to manage if
the country was not united. The entire country stood together to fight this
virus. The Covid warriors, who are our frontline healthcare workers, knowing
well the threat to their life, fought for this country.
What’s
your biggest learning?
One
positive learning in the past few months has been the significance of delivery
mechanisms that reach the last mile. Much of this delivery mechanism was built
in the first term of our government and it has helped us immensely in facing
this once-in-a-century pandemic. I will give just two examples. First, through
the Direct Benefit Transfer regime, we were able to transfer cash straight to
the bank accounts of millions of people almost instantly. This entire
infrastructure to enable this was built in the last six years. Earlier, even in
relatively smaller natural calamities, relief did not reach the poor and there
was massive corruption. But we were able to reach relief on a massive scale to
people in a very short time, without any complaints of corruption. That is the
power of technology in governance. To give a contrast, perhaps you could
enlighten your readers on how India fared during the smallpox epidemic in the
1970s.
And second, the behavioural change that a billion-plus people had adapted to in
such a short span of time — wearing masks and maintaining social distance — is
a world model of public participation without any coercive enforcement.
Our biggest learning is that a whole-of-government and whole-of-nation approach
can meet any challenge. Union and state governments have been working in a
seamless manner as one team, public and private sectors have come together, all
ministries converged to shoulder diverse responsibilities, and peoples’ participation
ensured a united and effective fight.
What’s
your assessment of the state of spread of Covid-19 in India?
The
pro-active measures taken in the early stages of the virus has helped us
prepare our defences against the pandemic. Though, even one untimely death is
extremely painful, for a country of our size, openness, and connectivity, we
have among the lowest Covid-19 mortality rates in the world. Our recovery rate
continues to be high and our active cases are significantly falling. From a
peak of almost 97,894 daily cases in mid-September, we are reporting only
around 50,000 new cases in late October. This has been made possible because
entire India came together and worked as Team India.
Recent
trends suggest a bending of the curve both in active cases and fatalities,
raising hopes that the worst may be behind us. Do you also share this view,
based on data available with the government?
This
is a new virus. Countries which had initially controlled the outbreak are now
reporting a resurgence.
The geographical spread of India, population density, the regular social
gatherings must be kept in mind when we look at these numbers and seek to
compare with others. Many of our states are larger than countries.
Within the country, the impact is very diverse — there are some areas where
it’s minimal, while there are some states where it’s very focused and
persistent. Yet it must be kept in mind that in a country with more than 700
districts, the impact is seen only in some districts of a few states.
Our latest numbers of new cases, mortality rate and total active cases do
indicate a lower phase than some time ago, yet we cannot be complacent. The
virus is still out there. It thrives on our complacency.
I believe we should use this phase of slowing down of cases not to celebrate,
but further strengthen our resolve, our behaviour and our systems. I feel that
our response should be focused on increasing capabilities to handle the
situation, make people more aware, create more facilities etc in keeping with the
dictum ‘Hope for the best but prepare for the worst’.
The
Covid-19 pandemic has had a debilitating impact on the economy, which you have
sought to address by aiming to strike the right balance between lives and
livelihood. How successful do you think the government has been in this
endeavour?
It
has been more than seven decades since we got Independence, but still some
people have the colonial hangover that people and governments are two different
entities. The perception that this calamity has fallen on the government
emanates from this mindset. The pandemic has affected 130 crore people and both
the government and the citizenry are working together to combat it.
Since the time Covid-19 started, it was frightening to witness scores of people
dying in various countries all over the world. Their health systems were
crumbling under the sudden load of patients. Both old and young were dying
indiscriminately. At that point, our aim was to avoid a similar situation in
India and to save lives. This virus was like an unknown enemy. It was
unprecedented.
When one is fighting an invisible enemy, it takes time to understand it and
evolve an effective strategy to counter it. We had to reach out to 130 crore
Indians and make them aware of the dangers we are facing from the virus and the
manner in which we could save ourselves and our family members.
It was a very challenging task. It was important to awaken Jan Chetna.
Awakening of Jan Chetna becomes possible only through Jan Bhagidari. Through
Janata curfew, signifying the collective national resolve by banging of thaalis
or by coming together by lighting lamps, we used Jan Bhagidari to bring all Indians
on one platform. This is an incredible example of mass awareness in a short
span of time.
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