Page 10 - ES 2020-21_Volume-1-2 [28-01-21]

Preface

ॐ असतो मा सद्गमय । तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ।
O Lord, Keep me not in Unreality, but make me go towards the Reality,
Keep me not in Darkness, but make me go towards the Light.

Economic Survey 2020-21 is an ardent tribute to the immortal human spirit of grit and compassion encapsulated by
the tireless battle against the pandemic by our frontline COVID-19 warriors. In the midst of the most unfathomable
global health emergency experienced in modern history, the resolve of each Indian helped find its way from the
darkness of ‘lives vs livelihoods’ to the glow of ‘#SavingLives&Livelihoods’. The foresight of our collective vision
to battle this pandemic became evident when policy insights and implementation at the Centre, State and local level
converged to initiate a V-shaped economic recovery. This spirit resonated in the recent Team India’s victory in
Australia where their resilience to rebound from 36 all out to winning the Test series was a V-shaped performance
indeed! Similarly, after experiencing a sharp contraction of 23.9% in first quarter of 2020-21, India is expected to
be the fastest growing economy in the next two years. Projections by various national and international agencies
including the IMF project this resilience of the Indian economy.

Through this year, as India bravely fought the global pandemic, it charted its own unique trajectory – showing
remarkable resilience, be it fighting the virus or ensuring economic recovery. This resilience is driven by the
strength of our systems that enforced the graded public health measures, ramped up the health response, ensured
free food grains to 80 crore people and gave momentum to the economic recovery. India derived its strength from
the support of 137 crore Indians who practised social distancing, wore masks and industriously contributed to the
fight.

Team@Eco Survey, 2020-21 recognises the integral role of effective policymaking in charting the path to economic
growth and social development. The upturn in the economy while avoiding a second wave of infections makes
India a sui generis case in strategic policymaking, of being fearless to choose the road less travelled by; for in the
end, that makes all the difference. India’s human-centric policy response to the pandemic, tailored to India’s unique
vulnerabilities, demonstrated the power of upholding self-belief under immense uncertainty. India transformed the
short-term trade-off between lives and livelihoods into a win-win in the medium to long-term that saves both lives
and livelihoods. Empowered by vision and foresight, India turned this crisis into an opportunity by ramping up its
health and testing infrastructure and implementing a slew of seminal reforms to strengthen the long-term growth
potential of the economy.

Clarity of objectives is imperative in policymaking as the various macro-economic policy choices always present
inherent trade-offs. The Survey makes the case for continued focus on economic growth as the most important
objective for India at its stage of development. Survey, then, delineates the constituents that would strengthen
effectiveness of policymaking – continued reforms, innovation, timely regulatory support and withdrawal of
forbearance. Continuing the endeavours of previous Surveys to relate economics to a common person, this year the
Survey constructs an index of ‘the bare necessities’ across States in India.
Digital Technology has been the ‘sprint runner’ of this year that enabled us to tide over the disruptive effects of
the pandemic. As a recognition of its role, the Survey this year has gone digital. To enhance the e-readability, for
the first time, the aligning of the text in the Survey is in a single column. We chose to continue with the popular
tradition of presenting the Survey in two volumes. Volume I, attempts to provide evidence based economic analyses
of the challenges of policymaking and tools to make it more effective. Volume II reviews recent developments in
the major sectors of the economy with a focus on the challenges faced due to the pandemic this year. This would
serve as the ready reckoner for the existing status and outlook for the sectors.

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