Indian Economy in Corona Time: Agriculture Only Bright Spot
India is an agricultural country: Kids of 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s grew up reading this one sentence in school textbooks until LPG (liberalization, privatization and globalization) changed the complexion of Indian economy,
writes Prabhash K. Dutta at India Today. Services became the king of economy and industries started pulling out workers from the fields.
The outbreak of the novel coronavirus in India — as part of global pandemic — shut down offices of the gloating services sector and closed factories. But crops standing in fields kept growing, and farmers continued to tend them. Covid-19 has essentially and largely remained an urban outbreak in India till now.
Now, economy indicators show what is already known: production has contracted in factories and services have suffered losses. The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 27.4 in April. This is the lowest reading of PMI in 15 years, that is, since it started recording data.
Continue reading at India Today.
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