Imagine you are dead. Now don’t take life for granted and write that Will

We’re at the stage in the covid-19 journey where the fear of death is fast getting replaced by the fear of the healthcare system—at least in cities like Delhi that have seen flip flops by the state government and very poor use of the lockdown days to plan for the expected peak in June. The safety protocols that were in decline got a revisit as we got to know of people around us who got the disease. Their horror stories of dealing with the healthcare system scared us right back to self-isolation and the ritualistic cleaning and disinfecting after every visit outside the house.

But once fear sets in, it is difficult to shake off. The number of people pinging, mailing and calling me to figure out their Wills grew as our own taken-for-granted mortality became a question mark. Even if the disease does not kill me, joked a friend, the healthcare system in Delhi will.

Read more

 

My interview in Ecoholics

In which Sanat Shirivastava, Host of Ecoholics talking to me in an interview.

 

 

 

Opinion | 20 Ts to fund 4 Ls, and the grumble about its source

We’ve gone from asking for a 10% of GDP covid-19 relief government plan to a grumble about the announced ₹20 trillion package (which is 10% of GDP) being just 1% of GDP, because the fiscal (what the government spends out of its annual budget) spend is only ₹2 trillion. We seem to care about where the money is coming from and not where it is going and what it is going to do.

A basic question first: why does the government need to spend its way out of this crisis? The covid-induced lockdown has caused both a demand and a supply side shock to the system. This situation needs an external entity—the government—to give lifelines of both income, cheap foodstuffs and credit (through its bank—the central bank) to people who most need them. How much should it spend and for what? Countries like the US, some parts of the EU and Japan announced spends of around 10% of GDP and are using the money for direct cash transfers to a workforce that has been furloughed or is out of work, to open liquidity windows, to buy bonds from corporates directly by the central banks and for existing unemployment benefits that have soared. The developed countries that have the good historical fortune of owning global reserve currencies—that the rest of the world buys to store value—are simply printing currency (it’s also called monetizing their debt) to fund their deficits.

Read more

 

Opinion | Act now to soften the economic blow

The trolley problem is a thought experiment used in classrooms to weigh options and their consequences. One version of it goes like this. There is a runaway trolley on a railway track that has five people tied up ahead, unable to move. The trolley is headed straight for them. You are some distance away, next to a lever. If you pull it, the trolley will switch tracks. However, this side track also has someone on it who will get hit. Do you exercise that option, or not? And, what if a second look at the side track reveals a few others farther down the line behind that sole person—maybe even more than you spotted on the first track? While the complexity of a real situation cannot be reduced to a classroom puzzle, it is apparent that a lockdown that saves lives from covid-19 (a moral imperative) also endangers livelihoods and thus lives further along the way as it deprives more and more people of their means of survival. The curbs imposed on our economy by the government are due to be lifted gradually from Monday onwards. But the economic disruption has been so severe that buffers are now urgently needed to soften its impact on businesses and jobs. Without adequate fiscal stimulation, India’s output this year could contract and throw the country into turmoil.

Read more