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Showing posts from April, 2020

Virus and Economy: The Cause

Economies are like wooden skyscrapers; beautiful, but volatile. A single spark can begin its crumble to shambles. Thankfully, we have the government to fight the raging inferno-like economic crisis when the spark burns. Yet again, we face the same situation due to the pandemic: A crumbling skyscraper with flames licking its foundations. Thus, our government must again don its kevlar suit and extinguish the fire before it extinguishes us. Governments of the past have dealt with post-virus economies in varying hues of terrible, horrible and villainous. Fortunately, our governments are much better equipped than those of the past with knowledge, both empirical and theoretical, of handling economic crises. Our adept handling of the financial crisis of 2008 (albeit our significant role in its beginning) proves that our current knowledge is enough to mitigate the crisis, if not solve it. Yet before we solve a crisis, we must know what it is caused by.  THE CAUSE Every economic shift h

The Workers' Plight

"We will run out of food in a few days," says Ramesh Kumar, "and I can't see my children hungry." He, like his fellow daily-wage earners, is faced by the dreadful concatenation of circumstances. With no respite in sight, their horizon remains bleak. To risk catching Coronavirus, or to risk starving without it. Labourers across India face a daunting spectre. It looms over them in the shadows, waiting for the opportune moment: the spectre of unemployment! Yet the privileged few of us who have the torches of regulation and knowledge can foresee and prevent it. However, those of us who do not see the spectre will be whisked away by its scythe. Those labourers we must protect - the daily-wage labourers, the migrant workers, et al.  When the Indian PM, Narendra Modi, announced a 21-day lockdown, contractual labourers were already apprehensive. The move destabilised the contractual sector and sent thousands into unemployed poverty. Although the lockdown in India i

Beyond Walls: CoVID-19

Nature. The one force which remains undomesticated by humanity. Every alteration we try to add, every problem we try to solve - nature fights back. Every action of humans has been equally reacted to by nature. However, if we cannot see beyond the depths of our pockets, being caught off-guard by nature should come as no surprise.  We pushed nature too far with our egotism and she sought vengeance. Our follies and misadventures have injured mother nature repeatedly. Hence, her vengeance comes to us. As a deadly virus: Coronavirus. The current coronavirus pandemic is an endangerment to the world. Killing above a lakh people, it has the potency of a Hiroshima atomic bomb. Yet there is no one to blame but ourselves for it. We were short-sighted in our approach and our confidence in our tactics. Many of us would not accept its dangerous potential. From that obscurity came Coronavirus' notoriety: fatalities and suddenness striking down humanity. The potent and deadly arsenal of