A 2 min read !

Hi ! Good Morning every one !

With the economy just started breathing in,can the nation sustain the colossus losses resulting from protests and pellmell ? Now the government is between the devil and the deep blue sea with a group of farmers from Haryana meeting the minister concerned and threatening to go on protests if it repeals the laws. Either the bill is to be deferred for a short period felt fit or the protests are to be deferred.It is time the protestors and the protested together go back to the drawing board to arrive at a consensus ! 

“War does not decide who is right-only who is left” is one of the greatest and the simplest quotations I have ever read on war and is by the Nobel Laureate, Bertrand Russell.The same thing applies to the present war like situation between the farmers and the government, if the word ‘who’ is replaced by ‘what’. What is left? A loss running into thousands of crores ! Different sources of news I referred to in the evening on the day of ‘Bharat Bandh’ quoted losses due to bandh as anywhere from Rs.10,000 crore to Rs.32,000 crore plus !Taking an average of figures at both ends,it isabout Rs, 21,000 crore. This is about 20% of the GST collections in October or November after a long lull or about 20% of the estimated funding for the coveted ‘Bullet Train’ Project or about 3.5 times the outgo from the government for waiving off interest on interest during moratorium ( a decision taken after much hesitation due to genuine concerns of fiscal stress) or about 8 times the dividend paid to the government by a single PSU, LIC in FY 19.These are only a few examples to understand the importance of the estimated loss.Can the nation sustain such economic shocks? How does this affect our economy that just started showing healthy signs with a contraction in Q2, less than half of that in Q1 ?

Industry body ASSOCHAM says that the Indian economy may bear a daily loss of around Rs.3,000 crore to 3.500 crore due to the protests,Business World reported.Again, taking an average loss of Rs.3250 crore per day the loss for 20days comes to Rs.65,0000 crore.This, coupled with the loss on a single day mentioned above goes to Rs.86,000crore and no wonder if it touches the 1 lakh crore mark soon, in the event of protests continuing.

Needless to say that, to sustain the commendable recovery experienced, it is time the stalemate is put an end to with due and diligent participation by all the stakeholders.

Wish you all a happy week end !