NEW DELHI: India’s overall GDP will take a Rs 14.88 lakh crore hit from Covid-19, which will have a huge impact on employment across sectors, a white paper by the Ministry of Science and Technology says.
The document titled “Focused Interventions for ‘Make in India’-post COVID-19” by the Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), an autonomous body under the Department of Science & Technology, analysed the pandemic’s impact on various sectors.
“The expected import from China to India in FY20 is approximately five per cent of India’s GDP, value amounting to `8.5 lakh crore. If a major portion of this import is replaced with indigenously developed products, it would significantly reduce the expected GDP loss. The same can be done by following China plus one policy, strengthening the ‘Make in India’ initiative in identified sectors,” the document concluded.
The global shutdown and quarantine because of the pandemic has severely affected the supply side of the economy without collateral damage to the demand side and has impacted most sectors, noted the 84-page document. “The supply side in the sectors of mining, manufacturing, construction, food, entertainment and recreation has been badly impacted whereas in sectors like agriculture, textile, electrical equipment, education and healthcare services, the demand is not so affected,” it said, adding that in order to calculate the impact on demand, correlations between demand, lockdown and spread were taken into account.