Covid-19 has alerted us of the gaps in the institutional capacities of the Indian state.Introspection, identification of shortcomings of macroeconomics,finance, public health and health care system, needs our utmost attention. Gitika Trust organized a brainstorming panel discussion with Dr. Tapas Sengupta, IISER Kolkata; Mrs. Sayoni Choudhuri Patra, Loreto College; Ms. Apala Ghosh, Independent researcher and Ms. Archana Verma, student Calcutta University on The Roadmap beyond Covid-19 on Sunday July 5th, 2020. The virtual panel was moderated by Ms. Rachna Agarwal, SREI in consideration of the norms of physical distancing. Dr. Sujata Chowdhury, President of Gitika Trust delivered the inaugural address and declared the panel open to the public. Mr. Somik Banerjee coordinated the mediacapture technicalities and post processing was done by Ms. Sanchari Ganguly. The vote of thanks was expressed by Ms. Basundhara Chowdhury. The video of the virtual forum is accessible here The Roadmap beyond Covid-19
Following are the panelist’s abstracts:
Increased Funding in Education and Research, Dr. Tapas K Sengupta
Covid-19 has prompted us to advocate increased funding from the current allocation of 0.75% GDP towards research and development. While in the short term, research in development of efficient diagnostics, prognostic management and vaccine generation needs to be prioritized; the long term goal of research milieu in our country should focus broadly upon basic and applied sciences pertaining to environmental conservation, agricultural practices, drug development and Artificial Intelligence. The role of research institutes such as IIT Delhi in developing rapid diagnostic kits needs to be highlighted especially since it is the first academic institute in the country to get an approval from the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for its Covid-19 test kit. It is encouraging to note that, the first homegrown vaccine being developed by Bharat Biotech won ICMR’s regulatory approvals for clinical trials in research centers across India. In this process, while it is important that all bureaucratic hurdles and patient recruitment are fast tracked, care must be taken that due diligence in accordance with globally accepted practices be adopted in the Covaxin development pipeline.
For the long term goals, the Ministry of Human Resources and Development’s circular on encouraging an outcome based approach for teaching students is a positive step in the right direction, and it is imperative on the teaching community to translate this objective in action. A multipronged E4 approach of Engagement, Exploration, Explanation and Extension must be cultivated in young citizens in schools, colleges, universities and advanced research centers. Interdisciplinary collaboration must be facilitated between government, NGOs and private institutions. MHRD’s Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan in West Bengal involving a convergent platform of IISER, Kolkata; IIT-Kharagpur, NIT-Durgapur, Vigyan Mancha and NGOs represents a successful model of nurturing schools to be incubators of innovation and must be replicated elsewhere. In pursuance of the focus on developing greater connectivity, a streamlined interface between academia and industry must be promoted especially in those intellectual property assets that demonstrate significant unmet needs. Finally, the Covid19 pandemic has demonstrated the utility of Artificial Intelligence in contact tracing and bringing unbiased point of care gains particularly in hybrid hospital models. Major investment is needed in this emerging field as well as the ancillary disciplines of statistical methods, algorithm development, cyber security and ramping up the digital infrastructure.
Institutionalism in the Post Covid era, Mrs. Sayoni Choudhuri Patra
The two core institutions in India- Public Health Institutions and Banking System are basic to our governance and sustenance as a society. The beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown have raised doubts on the performance of these two institutions. The lockdown with its sledgehammer approach has made the situation further complicated. According to K. Srinath Reddy, President, Public Health Foundation in India, observes, “When public health sneezes, the economy catches cold”: This observation clearly illustrates the intrinsic relation between the two sets of institutions. It’s a fact that in the 70 plus years of Independence none of the governments have dedicated sufficiently to develop a robust Public Health system to cater to the ever-increasing population of this country. The lower economic group has suffered the brunt of this weak Public health network. The pandemic has further exposed that in India both Public and private health has failed to perform as per minimum expectations. The question also arises whether the 20 lakh-crore rupees package will be sufficient to handle the pandemic, future research and invest in skill employment in Public health or not?
On the other hand, the Banking system in India which has been well governed by Reserve
Bank of India,the role of the Central Bank has been in terms of funding liquidity in the economy which came to a sudden halt with the Lockdown. Even Nobel laureates Drs. Amartya Sen and Abhijeet Banerjee had suggested printing of currency to finance the migrant workers, who were given wheat but no money to grind that wheat! The Finance Ministry and RBI committed loans to MSME, but loans have to be paid back. An economy which is being predicted to grow at 1% in the next two years by Gita Gopinath, Chief Economist, IMF, in such a situation how will MSMEs pay back loans. Loans involve extensive paperwork, which is even more demotivating to apply. The falling interest rates have been discouraging for senior citizens and all other citizens within the banking system. Thus, we enter a vicious cycle of financial uncertainty and an extremely weak health care system which will adversely affect our Social production.
Beyond Covid19- The economic factor, Ms. Apala Ghosh
The impact of this pandemic on India’s economy has been hugely disruptive, to say the least. India has experienced tragically low figures of fiscal growth since the economic liberalization of the 1990’s. Unemployment has risen to 26%, with over 140 million people losing employment, and over 45% of households across the nation experiencing an income drop compared to previous years. Up to 53% of
businesses in the Indian economy will be severely affected, with several supply chains experiencing stress, and in many states there still persists a lack of clarity over what commodities are to be considered essential. A number of young startups have been adversely affected by this necessary but sudden nationwide shutdown. Through no fault of its own, India is now struggling to keep both the economy, and the people who run it, alive. The formation on the Covid-19 Economic Response Task Force in the month of March aims to take stock of the most affected economic sectors, with consultation process with the concerned parties already underway. Various state governments have already announced financial assistance packages for the poor in the unorganized sector. The central government has announced a Rs 15,000 crore fund package for the healthcare sector. The government has also announced the largest food security scheme for 800 million people across the nation. The PM CARES health fund has been launched to collect donations that will go into combatting the situation. The Reserve Bank of India has made at total of Rs 374,000 crore available to the country’s financial system.
What we need to contemplate about at this hour is how we as citizens can help restart the country’s economy one this crisis tides over. The Indian government has already changed its Foreign Direct Investment policies to curb opportunistic acquisitions of Indian companies by foreign nations due to the current pandemic. It has also been suggested to the central
government that they create a credit protection scheme for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and creation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV/SPE) to limit government exposure while providing adequate liquidity to industries. Now is the time, more than ever, to support the ‘Make In India’ initiative being promoted by the central government. India is itself dependent on massive imports of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from China. The impact on the drug industry has helped highlight the national security implications of China’s dominance over the pharmaceutical industry in the country. This is serving to be a brutal wake up call for India, as it is not only highlighting the dependency of our pharmacies on China, it is also revealing the drawbacks and inadequacies of our economy. Similarly, in the smartphone market, Xiaomi, Vivo, Realme and Oppo have captured an astounding market share grab, considering most of these brands have not been in India for more than a few years. In coping with the dire economic crisis due to the pandemic, the central government has resorted to cash assistance to the poor as a relief measure. This liquidity will boost their consumer demand which in turn will generate economic activity, which is much needed to tackle the slump. However, this measure is temporary and may yield results for short term. Citizens have a right to minimum economic security. Hence basic minimum income is the long- term solution. The complete transcript of Apala’s paper can be accessed here INDIA’S ROADMAP: BEYOND THE PANDEMIC – THE ECONOMIC FACTOR
Roadmap with reference to a health perspective, Ms. Archana Verma
A lockdown of society, by itself is not a cure for the Covid-19 epidemic, and it is just a strategy for winning some time for the healthcare system. Epidemiological models suggest that the epidemic would bounce back once the lockdown is lifted. If this were to happen at the end of India’s lockdown, the epidemic would hit a society already under severe economic distress, with potentially devastating consequences. Therefore proper strategies are required in order to avoid such consequences. The key to ensuring that the Covid-19 pandemic does not leave a long shadow on our health depends on the ability to rectify the deficits in care that have emerged during lockdown while reconfiguring our systems to successfully maintain physical-distancing requirements and other proven interventions such as increased testing capacity, targeted isolation and contact-tracing. Therefore there is a need to focus on 3 components- funding,care delivery innovations and partnership & training. The Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme was launched by the Hon’ble Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare in November 2004 for a period upto March 2010. The project was restructured and extended upto March 2012. The objective was to strengthen and maintain decentralized laboratory based IT enabled disease surveillance systems for epidemic prone diseases to monitor disease trends and to detect and respond to outbreaks in early rising phase through trained Rapid Response Team.
The doctor-population ratio in India is 1:1456 against the WHO recommendation of 1:1000. Therefore there is a need to address the shortage of doctors. Though the government has taken up steps- such as the number of MBBS and PG seats have increased by 27,235 and 15000 respectively. But then it has to be implemented in order to serve the purpose. Unless we have sufficient doctors and medical staff, we cannot upgrade our medical infrastructure. The shortage of manpower leads to skewed distribution of health services. To build a robust medical infrastructure for the future, focusing on India’s infrastructure and technology needs, would require emphasizing the triple Helix model of innovation i.e. bringing together government, academia, and industry now more than ever. This could help minimize duplication of efforts and result in more effective use of resources. The government should allocate an adequate amount of resources towards boosting the country’s health infrastructure. With more funding, the government can provide free treatment to the poor through the public health system. In addition to free treatment, the government can provide health insurance to the poor so that they can avail treatment in private hospitals as well. The time has come for e-pharmacies to create a positive environment by making medicines accessible to all. They provide transparency as well as offer lower costs and greater availability for the consumer, especially in rural areas. Finally, considering the poor performance of healthcare services throughout the country, the role of NGOS need to evolve to partner with technology solution providers to develop innovative ways to ensure delivery of health services to beneficiaries. Archana’s paper can be accessed here INDIA’S ROADMAP: BEYOND PANDEMIC- WITH REFERENCE TO HEALTH PERSPECTIVE