The webinar on ‘Sectoral Implications of COVID-19 on Indian Economy’ was attended by 1034 participants
IIHMR University, Jaipur recently organised a webinar on ‘Sectoral Implications of COVID-19 on Indian Economy’ which was attended by 1034 participants.
The webinar was addressed by a panel of experts — Dr Prithvi Raj, Secretary (Finance), Government of Rajasthan; Dr Brajesh Kumar, Associate Professor (Economics), Arun Jaitley National Institute of Financial Management, Ministry of Finance, Government of India; Dr Prashant Gupta, Associate Professor (Finance), Indian Institute of Management, Trichy; Jatin Srivastava, Partner, Seth and Associates; Dr Pankaj Gupta, President, IIHMR University and Dr Prashant Sharma, Associate Professor (Finance), IIHMR University.
Dr Raj, shared insights about the macroeconomic outlook of Indian economy post COVID-19. GDP, unemployment, demand, inflation will see a huge contraction because of which every sector will be affected but there will be some money flow in the rural sector. In this way, Rajasthan will forecast 20 per cent to 25 per cent contraction in the current financial year. However, the government will invest in grassroot, health institutions, lab networks, infectious disease, and surveillance. He also discussed the effectiveness of various government initiatives and provided in-depth analysis of the implications of COVID-19 on Indian health sector. He further said that currently there is a large focus on treating this infectious disease, which is largely handled by government hospitals. Private hospitals are hardly participating in this. Few sectors like immunity booster products, hygienic products and pharma items will certainly see a rise in business. There is a need to develop a robust network of health institutions, programmes, and policies to tackle such situations of crisis.
Also discussions were held on the impact of COVID-19 on Indian manufacturing industry by Srivastava. Dr Gupta assessed the expected harm to the services sector due to lockdown. Dr Gupta from IIHMR University, discussed the implications on the education sector. This was followed by Dr Sharma, who assessed the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on Indian capital market and mentioned that the investor’s trust in the Indian markets is maintained.