Lessons for India Amidst Corona

2020 begun with contagious and deadly Novel CoronaVirus causes unprecedented deaths, Economic Losses but as every adversity brings seeds of Equal or Higher Opportunities likewise India too have points to ponder, introspect & should seize this adversity for better India.

Practice of Proper Sanitation

Poor Sanitation causes Diarrhea, Cholera, Dysentry, Typhoid, polio which accounts for 10% of death in India as per the World Bank. Every year over 300,000 Indians die from diarrheal diseases which could have been saved by providing only proper Sanitation facilities.

Due to Coronavirus, guidelines of WHO has reached to every nook and corner of India and the peoples from rural and low socio-economic background started paying attention for basic health hygiene to contain the Coronavirus-like regular handwashing, cough and sneeze discipline, social distancing and wearing masks which itself by practicing for the last several days, get accustomed to it and the subconscious mind of even the Rural Indians have accepted it which will pay a considerable dividend in the future.

The sincerity of people for proper health hygiene is going to make India more organized, Disciplined, and free from the sanitation-related disease which would help India to save its 10% of the population from death.

India spends a whopping 6.4% of its GDP to improve sanitation hence after changing the mindset of Indians, plethora of money could be saved & could be used for better purposes.

Ecology

As India went into the lockdown, vehicles, factories, Airplanes, etc got halted shown a positive impact on the Ecology of India particularly the reduced pollutions.

2019 Worlds Air quality Report says India accounts to be the 5th most Polluted Country in the world and 21 out of 30 most polluted cities in the World are from India.

The world's largest lockdown in India shown positive impacts as a drastic reduction in the level of NO2, CO2, PM2.5, PM10, SO2.

According to SAFAR, level of NO2 in India has reduced by 40%  after lockdown. Remember, the NO2 is released by the combustion of fossil fuels and a significant reason for Asthma among young and Infants.

In India, Asthma causes 16000 deaths annually, multiple times higher than coronavirus.

Reduced NO2 will certainly save multiple lives from Asthma.

CPCB has also said the PM2.5 content in Indian air has reduced significantly along with CO2 and CO.

The reduced pollution levels cause water from Ganga & Yamuna cleaned very significantly. Since the launch of Namami Gange in 2015, Rs 48 billion has been spent  to clean the Ganga but no significant results have achieved while only months-long lockdown proved to be more beneficial.

Hence it educates us, by building better sewage treatment plants and stringent regulations for factories will save Rivers, Air, Weathers, and entire ecosystem more significantly than any project.

Crude oil

India is one of the world's largest crude oil importer spent $112 billion on oil imports in the financial year(FY) 2019. Recently due to Coronavirus, the demand for oil reduces, the price of oil around the world had fallen to the unprecedented price and if it continues India in FY 2020 would spend mere $64 billions on oil imports which itself could save India's whopping $50billion in 2020 compared to 2019 which would help the Government to manage the huge losses incorporated during the Lockdown.

Recently when oil price plummets internationally, India tapped this moment and stored its half-emptied strategic oil reserves(SOR) to full capacity. The SOR is storage where oil is stored for the strategic and emergency procurement if geopolitical crisis disrupts the supply chain. India accounts for 5.33 million tonnes of SOR.

Seeing the volatile price of Oil, India needs to increase its SOR significantly to seize the benefits of low oil prices in the future.

India's Soft Power & Diplomacy

Coronavirus forced all the countries to ban the export of Pharmaceutical products like medicines to meet their own demands.

India too had practiced it and ban Hydroxychloroquine(HCQ) and Paracetamol tablets when the studies from around the world had shown it helps the Patients suffering from Coronaviruses.

But soon as the 55 countries around the world requested India for Hydroxycholoquine, India reciprocated and supplied adequate doses to different countries including the US, Russia, Brazil, Caribbean nations, etc. Out of the 55 countries  34 had received the HCQ as a free of cost and the balance of 21 nations have purchased these tablets from India, India also Uphold its foreign policy as "neighbors first policy" by giving doses to all surrounding countries on grants except Pakistan.

This Gesture in the time of need to these 55 countries will be seen as a goodwill gesture of India and help to builds its greater image and leadership ability in the worlds stage in the time when the Chinese image in the world had deteriorated in view of Coronavirus and the leadership of India in time of need will redefine the Indian Relations with all 55 countries and it brings India even closer to the permanent membership for the UNSC.

Indian Pharmacy contributes 2% share in GDP of India and the Indian pharmaceutical sector industry supplies over 50 percent of global demand for various vaccines, 40% of generic demand in the US, and 25% of all medicine in the UK.

Seeing the potential of Indian Pharma, US company Codagenix had collaborated with Indian "Serum Institue of India" to manufacture the vaccine for Coronavirus.

After this pandemic, the Indian Pharma sector is going to get a plethora of collaborations around the world and will take India's GDP share to even higher making India even more Respectable in International Stage.

Medical Infrastructures

This Pandemic had tested Medical Infrastructures, even the western countries assumed to be the best had succumbed. India had done well but it also shows its vulnerabilities. From data, India only spends a mere 1% of GDP on Medical facilities, only has 0.5 beds against 1000 patients, accounts only 8 doctors against 10000 Indians, has mere 40000 ventilators, and a grave shortage of protective gear for doctors like masks, gloves, PPE, etc.

In this grave danger of lack of Protection for health workers, Many NGOs, Tailors, Women came forward and with limited resources start stitching masks, PPE, gloves, and fulfilled the requirement.

To address the grave shortage of Ventilators, Indian startups, Entrepreneurs, and engineers with basic Jugaad had constructed equally beneficial ventilators at cheap cost for example at RS 25000 by IIT Roorkee even without being operated by Compressors.

Conclusion

  

This shows India's capabilities to satisfies the need of the Nation without being dependent on western countries which not only save Billions but also prove the Technological mettle of India in the world like we did in Integrated Guided Missile Development programs.