BEFORE the ink could dry on India’s quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) statistics, officials have been quick to parade last quarter’s 20% growth as vindication of their prediction of “imminent V-shaped recovery.”
How sensible is that claim? The April-June period was when the pandemic overwhelmed oxygen supplies and hospital beds, villagers floated bodies in rivers or left them in shallow graves, families sold their assets to save their loved ones, and an estimated 2.5 million to 2.8 million Indians died because of Covid-19, according to independent researchers.