Hello readers, there are rising concerns about the new Omicron variant of covid-19. New cases are popping everywhere across the country, so today, this article will answer essential questions and summarize the current situation.
On January 18, 2022, we witnessed 3,17,532 new cases and 7-day average is 2,71,549. It is an all-time high in 6 months. It will soon break the levels of the second wave, so officially, the third wave is here.
The administration is ready for this time. Businesses are also ready to deal with the situation. We can supply 19,000 Tonnes of oxygen this time but is our economy ready to take another hit? We are witnessing partial lockdown, night curfew, and other restrictions on group activities or any social activities. These restrictions will affect manufacturing and industrial activities negatively. It will affect the whole supply chain. Restrictions will also hit theatres, malls, theme parks, clubs, malls, restaurants. The cases are rising at an alarming rate. That means we can expect a nationwide lockdown. On the other hand, we got Inflation at 5.59%. It is five months high, and experts say it will hit 6% soon.
We are still in the recovery phase after the second wave in this quarter. We were expecting growth of 6.1 %, but after the advent of Omicron, we are now expecting growth of 5.7 %. In the latest edition of the State of the Economy report, RBI showed confidence in the Indian economy, stating that economic activity in India is strong. We saw a sell-off in markets worldwide after the advent of Omicron. The markets recovered and reached the same level again in a blink of an eye. The expected hike in RR (Reverse repo rate) will get postponed among uncertainties revolving around Omicron and the high inflation rate. This year we can expect government expenditure to be around 32 lakh crores.
2021 was an excellent year for Indian start-ups as they received a $77 billion investment compared to 2020. It is 62% more, so we can expect good forging and domestic investment in new-age start-ups, even after the third wave.
In this chaos, people are looking towards budget 2022 with high hopes, but the government is also in starch as we already had a high fiscal deficit last year. We spent 34.5 lakh crores, much higher than we planned.
In summary, there will be the third wave, and we must follow protocols. The government will impose restrictions and lockdown for our good, affecting the overall economic growth. We will be in recovery for a prolonged period.
And omicron will definitely affect the economy because it is 7x more faster than delta
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