Monitor News Desk
The Coronavirus pandemic took over the world quickly and devastated many economies, especially in India. In the first month of the year, India has seen large-scale protests that are continuing to divide the country.
This comes just a few years after the Kashmir Crisis. Recently, the Congress party, Shiv Sena, and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) condemned both the violence by the farmers in Delhi and the central government for mishandling the protests.
The plight of Delhi farmers came to a culmination point last year, in combination with the pandemic crisis. Now, the central government and various political groups throughout India must begin to invest in the country so that the congress can rediscover itself and bring a new period of abundance to the country.
In addition to progressive policies for the benefit of the economy, congress must focus on unity. Modi’s abuse of Kashmir during the crisis, labelled as “integration” has left a deep impression across all of India. False “integration” must be confronted and reversed, otherwise, the people’s focus will shift from repairing the economy and instead allow the same type of sentiment that fuelled the Kashmir crisis to rise again.
What Congress Must Do Next
With dozens of prominent politicians calling for peace and a resolution to the issues raised by the Delhi farmers’ protests, the central government must work quickly to avert all-out disaster. Balasaheb Thorat, the State Congress chief and Maharashtra revenue minister, told the Hindustani Times that “The farmers have been camping from the last 60 days but the Central government was just wasting time instead of indulging in serious talks.” In order to get finances in order, the government must address this issue and turn its attention towards Coronavirus vaccines, to ensure that the country’s economy can regain its ground.
Although India’s government has incredible experience in manufacturing vaccines on a large scale, campaigns of misinformation and worries that the vaccines were developed on an accelerated timetable are running rampant. The government estimates that they are vaccinating a rate of 40 percent less than they were expecting. Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked doctors to help educate patients and announced again that the vaccine was absolutely developed safely. As countries all over the world are beginning vaccinations, governments everywhere are holding their breath in hopes that the vaccine will return economies to normal.
Passing Measures to Boost the Economy
In order to pick up the economy, the Indian government must place its focus on restoring jobs that were lost during the pandemic, as well as before the pandemic. As many traditional careers have reached an endpoint due to the development of technology, many new industries have popped up online that can make a difference.
Retail is one of India’s largest industries, contributing about 10 percent to the GDP. Not just stores that sell electronics, clothing, or other items, but specifically agricultural retail. Many of these businesses were prepared to go online when the country shut down, and online retail is now one of the biggest factors propping up India’s economy.
Congress can encourage the economy to recover by supporting more online industries that will make up for the loss of revenue from the decline of tourism this year. For example, foreign online gambling websites in India operate in the grey area of the law, but this industry grows at a rate of 20 percent every year, worldwide. India’s online gaming industry made 90 billion rupees in 2020. By effectively controlling and regulating the industry, the entire country can benefit from the taxes from these websites. Many European countries as well as parts of the United States have legalized gambling online with real money and are regulating it to take advantage of the enormous economic benefit and to protect the people.
Congress may push through regulations on internet gambling in order to take advantage of the tax revenue to make up for funding lost during Covid-19. Experts believe India will follow the USA-model with state-by-state regulations. Legalising a new industry will take time and each territory will have to decide to allow and regulate or ban it entirely. Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are actively trying to stop real money gambling online, effectively suppressing these international companies from contributing to the local commerce.
The Indian economy also largely depends on the production of energy resources. While India itself depends on gas and coal, the country has been a leader in producing energy, solar, and nuclear power. Despite shutdowns that have made manufacturing difficult, these industries will also continue to grow and contribute largely to the GDP if congress can support these programs correctly.
Manufacturing and technology will continue to provide jobs and keep India’s economy growing with proper attention from the federal government.
