1 Introduction

India, a large country of about 1.3 billion people, witnessed its first Coronavirus case on 30th January 2020, in Kerala, in a student returning from Wuhan [1]. It was on the same day that the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern [2]. However, it was not until March 2020 that the country realized the intensity of the virus. The government took notice of how the virus became a global concern in no time, so much so that it was declared to be a pandemic on March 11, 2020, in just little over three months when the first human case was identified in Wuhan, People’s Republic of China. The Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare acknowledged the respiratory disorder that originated in China as highly dangerous and immediately called the Joint Monitoring Group to keep a close eye on further developments. Taking swift action on the issue, the Government of India constituted 11 Empowered Groups on 29 March to investigate the different aspects of COVID-19 management and to assess the risk, review the preparedness and response mechanisms, finalize technical guidelines, and make informed decisions in time on them. Like the rest of the world, India followed suit and announced a complete lockdown on March 24, 2020. By 12th March 2020, India had reported more than 500 cases across various states such as Delhi, Rajasthan, and Telangana, and the initial death count was 10 [3].

1.1 Impact of Covid pandemic

COVID-19 affected the everyday life of humans and hindered the worldwide economy. The pandemic also impacted a social life of people all over the world. The infection spread all over the globe, almost in 213 countries as per WHO reports, and has shown severe implications for countries' economic and health systems [4, 5]. The pandemic shook the roots of world systems and states at almost all levels. The “abnormal” way of life became “normal,” and people were compelled to survive amidst a nationwide lockdown. At times like these, it was the spirit of mankind that helped people fight all odds and go through tough times. The worldwide outbreak of Coronavirus buckled the public health system. Countries across the world struggled to contain the fast spread of the virus as it continued to have a devastating impact on the lives of the people.

The economic devastation caused by the pandemic was very prevalent and easy to monitor. However, it was the ‘disguised disruption’ of structural units that caused the real damage. From shops to schools and offices to public places, a shutdown of everything caused people to directly bear the socio-economic and emotional costs of the pandemic. This caused a massive migrant and labor crisis, with everyone desperately searching for asylum. The 454 million internal migrants felt desperate to return to the safe havens of their homes, also because the means of their livelihood at their place of work was now shut down due to the pandemic [6].

With the closure of educational institutions to contain the spread of the contagious virus, the burden shifted to the students who were enrolled in schools and colleges or coaching classes. The fee, when coupled with the cut down on family income, caused a heavy dropout, especially for the girl child, who is always the easiest target and the most burnt bearer of a tragedy [7]. The share of the unorganized sector, which was most hit by the closure and the lockdown, in employment is around 83%. This was going to have a long-term impact on the Indian economy—as while the organised sector switched to continue its business as usual through online mode, work-from-home structure, and technological support; the unorganized sector came to a virtual standstill. The state's healthcare sector, too, shifted the entire “guns and butter” equation to just one unit, and the other regular check-ups, immunization programs, and any other aspect of healthcare program or concern took a back seat—putting the elderly and the diseased at great risk. Put together, the pandemic was a mammoth challenge for everyone, from people to institutions, societies to states. However, it was the collective will, timely-made policies, India’s social capital, and quick responses that helped the country sail through the adversaries.

1.2 Response of the Indian State

As a global response to the pandemic and to contain the spread of the virus, various Public and Private institutions switched to online modes of functioning, such as schools, colleges, and even the Judiciary. But this facility was not available to all sectors and institutions as many other organizations continued to work on the ground, such as those serving essential commodities, medical industries, agricultural sector, transport industry, and the civil society actors—who together came forward towards smooth functioning of the society and economy during the crisis period. In India, various policy reform measures were adopted across various sectors, such as education, health, economy, agriculture, and health, to keep the life of the country functional and the economy afloat. The following section deals with this aspect in detail.

1.3 Education sector

Education has long been a crucial component in assessing development trends throughout time and across countries. It has proved instrumental in numerous ways, from reducing poverty and inequality to preparing the path for long-term economic prosperity. Higher pay, social mobility, practical life skills, increased discipline, and a readiness to change have all been advantages of education.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, India’s poor educational records have been exacerbated, with schools being closed since March 2020. Schools in India had to be closed for the largest number of weeks. Since the March 2020 lockdown, 1.5 million schools have been closed, and 247 million primary and secondary pupils have been dropped out of school [8]. Schools have been attempting to replace in-person classes with online learning since most primary school students have not attended school in over a year. Teachers and institutions have experimented with using e-platforms like WhatsApp groups, group tutoring, Zoom, and Skype to reach out to their students. Other creative approaches to reaching them include using loudspeaker tutorials for those without an internet connection. The internet connectivity and the digital divide in Indian society were laid clear, with people even climbing over trees and buildings to get signals.

These online lessons, however, have had a mixed response. While many children in metropolitan regions have accessed online classes, many preferred lectures "in a classroom," where they would not be forced to "do everything on WhatsApp—i.e., submit assignments, talk to friends, ask questions." Many students take online classes for more than four lessons every day, including core subjects like English and Science, as well as extracurricular activities like dance or taekwondo [9]. As a result, students started spending a significant amount of time on their laptops or mobile devices. Parents who disliked technology and digital exposure, on the other hand, objected to online classes because "they complained about their children's increased screen time." Due to the extended lockout and the necessity to do other domestic duties, some parents found it difficult to assist their children with the online learning paradigm [10]. Teachers also expressed dissatisfaction with their inability to establish "rapport with the youngsters," as they did in school. They believed that because teachers got little chance to interact online, they were unable to monitor "body language in class," and "their connection with peers” was affected. As a result, many teachers claimed that remote learning made it harder to engage students [11].

However, due to poor connectivity and lack of access to digital devices, many students, particularly in rural regions, face many problems in accessing online learning material. According to a report on India's Key Indicators of Household Social Consumption on Education, only 15% of rural families had access to the Internet, compared to 42% of urban households [12]. Many students struggled because they lacked personal gadgets or one designated for studies, had poor internet connections, or simply couldn't afford an internet connection. The schools, too, failed to provide the necessary infrastructure to the teachers and the students to take up the task of online education. A sudden shift was destined to have problems on both ends as teachers were not trained on how to teach in an online mode, and the students couldn't grasp what was being taught. This made them helpless.

Many families experienced financial hardship as a result of the pandemic, which was going to have an impact on other aspects of their livelihood. During school closures, some of the poorest families couldn’t even afford a digital gadget to avail their children of access to education or other skill training. This created a learning divide, which shall have an impact in the long run. The lengthy closure of schools had been a burden, and over 90% of low-income parents wanted schools to return as soon as feasible [13]. The reopening of schools, on the other hand, had ebbed and flowed. The Union government allowed schools to begin on October 15, 2020, but gave the respective state education boards to decide the course of action, which was to be based on the incidence of COVID-19 infections in the area and the regular COVID guidelines issued by the Health ministry. The reopening program that was suggested contained options of alternate day schooling, two-day schooling, and continuous use of online learning, as well as two school shifts per day, staggered timetables, and outdoor sessions [14]. The elderly and the children were the most vulnerable, and the government could not have afforded a fresh spread of the virus, especially when signs of its mutations were evident. The experiences from other countries also helped India to learn the way out.

After the announcement in October 2020, certain states, like Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, reopened their schools but had to close them because numerous people (students, teachers, and school staff) got infected. Due to the forthcoming board exams, schools in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Karnataka were to reopen in February 2021, notably for those in grades 9–12 [14]. However, with India's second wave of COVID-19 infections in March 2021, the number of cases increased once more. As a result, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu chose to close primary schools. The second wave was the most fatal and pushed state healthcare machinery to its maximum, and the number of infected people, along with those who died due to it, broke all records. India overnight became a global hotspot of COVID-19 [15]. However, several schools across India began to reopen at the beginning of September 2021 after being closed for 18 months. Many cautious precautions were implemented for this reopening, including "stay-at-home" advice, "50 percent capacity, thermal screening, physically distanced seating arrangements, among others." Many schools also improved their infrastructure, such as ventilation, water supply, and restrooms, to support efforts of containment of the virus and restrict its spread. However, the long-term effects of the school shutdown still need more assessment.

The lack of communication between different stakeholders also created confusion sometimes regarding the guidelines, but the teaching–learning experience was sure to have taken a long-term hit with the uncertainty over the upcoming times as the virus was not mutating and taking different forms, resisting the effect of the vaccine. The effect of this can be largely felt in the rural areas. A prolonged disconnect from the studies pushed them way back from where they were. They were unable to recall vernacular scripts and lessons that they had been taught thus far. Thus taking it all to square one or even more primordial. The 18-month school shutdown stunted the development of educational faculties. In addition to the lost knowledge and know-how, the distress could be seen in the rate of dropouts. In rural areas or families with low income, education is seen as a trade-off. It is seen as if the family is compromising on an earning hand by sending their child to school based on a promise of a brighter future. With the onset of the pandemic, people lost their jobs, and this directly compelled them to let go of the education their child was attaining at different levels. These large chunks of dropouts put together would change the dynamics of an entire generation if left unattended at this crucial juncture.

Furthermore, these dropouts would reinforce gender stereotypes and widen the gap [16]. Girls were an obvious choice to cut resources in times of crisis, and they would be then married off at an early age to reduce their dependency on the family. Therefore, this would strengthen the gender education gap and give rise to child marriages and child labor, both of which are heinous crimes but extremely prevalent in India, particularly amongst the rural poor. In the urban setups, though the girls are not forced to drop out of school, their education remains burdensome. They were expected to fit in the “gender roles'' and help with household chores, which adds to the overall workload. This, in turn, caused them to neglect their studies and overall well-being [17].

Apart from the gender gap troubles and related adversaries, the shutdown of schools has had an even deeper impact on the overall well-being and health structure of the country. The Midday Meal Scheme was a win–win policy that the government had in place, as it hit two birds with a single stone. On the one hand, it was able to increase the attendance rate and provide education to a good sum of people, while on the other hand, it was able to provide nutritious food to the children that would help forestall stunting, early deaths, and mal-nutrition amongst other food-related illnesses. The meal provided children with daily bodily requirements of proteins and nutrition. However, a shutdown came haunting their health at a time when they should have the best of it to maintain their immunity against the virus [18].

The nutrition intake scheme was not a yearly process or a short-term goal. It was to help a child develop into a healthy adult while making use of its potential and capabilities. However, a cut on this has risked their future stakes of becoming a healthy, productive, and sound individual who would have the freedom to explore the best of his/her capabilities and contribute to the progress of society. This prominent aspect of human capital formation faced serious risk and, if not corrected within the given time frame, would affect the health of the younger lot, which would define the coming generation and, therefore, the state’s capabilities in the long run [14]. Moreover, malnutrition in children makes them susceptible to regular diseases and weakness, which makes them skip school, and if left untreated, they could become chronic in nature. All of this led to an increase in the pressure on the state's healthcare system. The state’s increased spending on healthcare came from a cut down on spending on developmental projects. Therefore, both the state and society suffered and started drifting on the path of regression and not progress [19].

To tackle the situation, the Central government and many state governments ordered Anganwadis and schools to supply midday meals either in raw form or cooked form to all the students. Moreover, some states attempted to regulate this supply using ration cards or cash transfers to the families. Nevertheless, due to the structural factors and loopholes in the systems clubbed with red-tapism and corruption, not everyone could receive these packages or help [20]. The Midday Meal Scheme might be the same, but the way it has been implemented during the lockdown differed at the state level. While states like Haryana and Chhattisgarh preferred giving dry rations, Telangana provided hot cooked food, while in Bihar, cash transfer was preferred. These implementation level differences were reflected in the results, and the benefits could not reach all [21].

In addition to this, the shutdown had layers of intersecting factors of caste, class, and religion to it. The upward mobility was snapped for people belonging to lower caste and class. People from Schedule Castes and Tribes who were making a living out of their traditional skills in the city had to move back to the more primitive and highly stereotyped societies, i.e., to their villages, and had to suffer the discrimination which they had earlier fled from. This made the situation far worse [22]. The tragedy of suffering did not end here. The pandemic affected the mental well-being of poor families who were running on a hand-to-mouth basis, and this sudden economic jolt added to their grievances. Studies establish that the decline in economic status triggered mental ill health problems during the pandemic situation. It has been observed that, although most people had adjusted to COVID-19, levels of anxiety, depression, and stress remained high for respondents who experienced a deterioration in income. The studies also confirm that anxiety, depression, and stress levels were high for economically vulnerable sections of the population [23, 24] particularly in developing countries [25,26,27].

The mental health of the children suffered a lot. There were many news of them committing suicide following despair or pressure of not being able to do something. In urban households, loneliness caused stress and anxiety in the children, and the lack of communication in the modern family added to the distress. Children who were not able to get therapy or communicate their emotions got caught in a sea of endless thoughts. This attack on their mental health has been overlooked in the state policies. Suicide was the leading cause for over 300 “non-coronavirus deaths” reported in India due to distress triggered by the nationwide lockdown, revealed a new set of data compiled by a group of researchers. The group, comprising public interest technologist Thejesh GN, activist Kanika Sharma, and assistant professor of legal practice at Jindal Global School of Law Aman, said 338 deaths have occurred from March 19 till May 2 and they are related to lockdown. According to the data, 80 people killed themselves due to loneliness and fear of being tested positive for the virus. The suicides are followed by migrants dying in accidents on their way back home (51), deaths associated with withdrawal symptoms (45), and those related to starvation and financial distress (36) [28].

A lot of things could work because of the strong civil society presence that India has had. Non-governmental organizations, foundations, unions, and individuals from all walks of life came together in these tough times to address the needs of children in their personal capacities. Schools and colleges quickly moved online to keep things going as “usual” to create a psychological impression of normal times. Furthermore, organizations helped deliver books, mobiles, and internet connection facilities in rural areas to keep everyone connected. On the academic front, teachers and professors volunteered to teach their peers in the virtual mode of learning and teaching. This helped develop a community where everyone was keen to learn the new ways of teaching and provide lectures. This bandwagon was joined by coaching institutes and tutors who dispatched tabs in remote areas to facilitate the learning mechanism. A blessing in disguise was the language. Since India has a fairly good amount of English Speakers or people who can read and write in English, or at least know the bare minimum of it, they were able to adapt to the online mode quickly. Even the technology was quick to adapt to people’s needs, and many major tech providers introduced regional languages in their applications to help users connect in a dire situation like the Pandemic. This two-front war and timely action and support from all ends helped the boat from sinking up to a great extent. However, there still lies plenty of scope for improvement and accommodation. The government has been trying to make ends meet and bring children back to school, but it would need to work closely on all the related aspects to make things “normal.”

1.4 Health sector

India’s healthcare system has never been up to the mark despite the fact that India has a sound number of doctors, health experts, and medical facilities. A primary reason for this distress has been the lack of attention it has received from the government. The budget allocation for the Health sector never reflects the population ratio and always falls short. Moreover, the lack of functional and quality-driven government hospitals and affordable health care affects people. But, this rotten system was exposed due to a Pandemic. No government in the world expected an outbreak so severe and was not even distantly prepared to tackle it. There were few hospitals, limited staff, and counted resources. However, the pandemic demanded the healthcare system run at its maximum capacity, which, towards the end, almost collapsed it. Thousands died due to oxygen cylinder shortages, not being able to find a hospital bed on time, or not being able to get vaccines or lifesaving drugs on time. This shortage caused millions of people to lose their lives, especially during the second wave of Covid 19. This wave broke the back of the health care system and compelled governments across the country to be on their toes, import supplies of oxygen and medicines, run on makeshift hospital beds, and work on 24/7 emergencies. In the past, the Modi Government announced a health insurance cover of up to 6021 USD, a scheme dubbed “Modicare,” replicating “Obamacare,” a similar healthcare program launched by President Obama in the United States. However, this bluntly overlooked the need for more aid from the government's end for the public healthcare system. The need for establishing more quality hospitals with better equipment, qualified staff, and affordable prices was never realized. All these shortcomings were perfectly visible and incredibly hurting during the outbreak of the pandemic.

Healthcare infrastructure cannot be built overnight. Therefore, initially, the government relied heavily on the services of private hospitals, along with hotels that were converted into isolation centers. However, the troubles were amplified when the country started running short on medical supplies and not infrastructure. The pandemic exposed how the healthcare cost in the country has almost tripled while people’s income has not matched up. This has created a huge gap and kept a mammoth amount of people out of health coverage. The people who struggled during COVID-19 didn’t have any health insurance, and as the situation became gruesome with fewer and fewer resources for the public to avail, the prices of healthcare shot up. People had to go up to the extent of selling their property to meet the expenses during the COVID crisis. India’s dream of being a superpower can’t be realized until it strengthens its healthcare system, which is the backbone of any country.

Albeit, during the pandemic, the government released guidelines and regulations for private hospitals and warned them against profiteering, but all of it fell on deaf ears. These measures were not implemented in the best of manners, and private hospitals maneuvered in full swing and charged as high as 1lac per day from COVID-19 patients. The worst affected, like always, were the rural people and the poor. They didn’t have any health insurance, connections, and money to buy the facilities. They were solely dependent on the state, which was already running short on supplies. Many states in the north, like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar had no proper infrastructure in place. Lands that were allotted to be hospitals were used for other purposes, and government hospitals in place were in an extremely awful condition. There was no staff, infrastructure, machines, medicines, and oxygen cylinders. It replicated a war-torn camp in some distant part of the world that is dying for human aid [29].

As the nation crawled out of the second wave somehow, some new challenges awaited it. The vaccine enrolment plans and ensuring that everyone gets both doses timely in a thickly populated country is a tall order. In a country where a huge chunk of the population lives in poverty and is uneducated, it is important to dispense vaccines in a transparent, affordable, and accessible manner. The Indian government and medical experts approved two vaccines, namely Covishield and Covaxin while keeping an eye on all the vaccine development in the world. Later, Sputnik developed in Russia was also included in the list.

There were challenges from the end of workers as well. They were underpaid or were not duly compensated. Many were working overtime or temporarily. Many doctors and medical staff lost their lives while serving the nation in tough times. The government, both on the state and central level, was quick to realize and respond and announced several schemes and packages keeping in mind the families of such workers. The amount of this relief fund as insurance to the frontline workers was as high as 10 million. Along with this, the government announced compensation and policies for the patients who lost their lives in the fight against COVID. The Delhi government declared that children who lost their parents would get free education, along with monetary compensation. People who lost their livelihood or means of income would be helped by providing capital grants and loans. These measures would help heal the economic loss that the people have suffered and will, in turn, also help the state’s economy get back on track. However, a larger challenge was to bring things back to normal and restore lives after such a depressing period that the entire world was witnessing as a whole.

Although the vaccines were there, they faced many challenges. The rollout faced difficulties because states had limited amounts of the doses with them. This caused shortages, and it was alleged that private players were hoarding vaccines only to dispense them at a good price later. The dual policy that the state had given citizens both options, getting vaccines free of cost from the government centers or through private players with a price ceiling. However, there were difficulties obtaining free vaccines provided directly by the government. Moreover, the booking was to be done online; hence, a clear lot of people, especially in the rural areas deprived of technical know-how, were unable to make use of these facilities. The state government stepped in and tried to reach the outskirts and make teams that would help illiterate people avail of services. However, the government could not brush aside the biases people had regarding vaccines. There were plenty of hysteria and false narrations that were doing the rounds with respect to vaccines. People in the rural areas were hesitant to take vaccines as they believed this would either make them impotent, cut short their life cycle, or have side effects in the years to come. This kind of narration created an aversion to vaccines. To address this issue, many TV commercials, serials, and e-modes, along with door-to-door counseling, were done from the government's end to eradicate this issue of ignorance.

India’s over-sized population has been a big challenge, and to get vaccines double doses for such a huge population was even more challenging. However, India managed to vaccinate 100 crore people, a feat in itself. The Indian rural healthcare system, which runs on three levels consisting of Sub-Centres, Primary Health Centres, and Community Health Centres, was involved in making vaccines available at the rural levels. Although the workforce levels were way below the recommended and needed units of WHO, they played a crucial role during the crisis. The number of people who were getting vaccinated was on the increase, but a simultaneous threat of new variants that might spark another wave of COVID has been a matter of serious concern. To ensure a safe environment, it has become important that the government take timely and strict measures. Make RTPCR test mandatory along with ensuring that all people aged above 18 years get vaccinated. Moreover, COVID guidelines and precautions need to be followed religiously to avoid adversaries of all kinds. The fight against COVID is not individual-centric; rather, it needs collective action and determined persistent efforts.

1.5 Fiscal policy response

India’s fiscal policy response to the pandemic was strategized with a step-by-step approach due to the unprecedented nature of the crisis and massive uncertainty. Fiscal spending in India initially focused on providing support in cash and in-kind to vulnerable households. The initial measures in April 2020 included cash transfers to poor households, distribution of free food grains, and medical insurance to health workers. More comprehensive measures were announced under the various tranches of the Atmanirbhar Bharat package in May and November 2020. Policies were announced to aid the micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) sector by increasing the coverage, providing collateral-free loans, a corpus to fund equity, etc. Several schemes were announced to provide support to farmers and promote the production of high-value primary products [30].

In the first phase of the pandemic, the spending measures focused mainly on healthcare and social protection, such as in-kind (meals; cooking gas) and cash transfers to low-income households (1.2% of GDP); employment and wage support provision to the low-wage workers (0.5% of GDP); healthcare insurance coverage; and health care infrastructure (0.1% of GDP). Additional public investment (about 0.2% of GDP) and support for the schemes targeting specific sectors were announced at later dates in October and November 2020.

The latter measures included a Production Linked Incentive scheme that is estimated to cost approximately 0.8 percent of GDP over five years, a higher fertilizer subsidy allocation benefiting agriculture (0.3 percent of GDP), and support for the urban housing construction (0.1% of GDP). Multiple measures to simplify the tax compliance burden across a variety of industries had also been announced, along with the postponement of some tax filing and other compliance deadlines, as well as a decrease in the penalty interest rate for late Goods and Services Tax (GST) filings. In light of the resurge in infections, similar measures to ease the burden of tax compliance were reintroduced somewhat during the months of April and May 2021.

The agricultural sector is primarily supported by infrastructure development. The central government's budget for FY 2021/22 focused on increasing spending on health and well-being, including funding for the nation's COVID-19 vaccination campaign (350 billion Rs). It was tabled in the parliament on February 1, 2021. In response to the surge in infections, the central government announced in April 2021 that free food grains would be provided to 800 million people in May and June (at the cost of approximately 260 billion rupees), comparable to the additional food rations provided in 2020.

The central government had also extended the scheme for giving interest-free loans to states for the capital expenditure for FY 2021/22 (150 billion rupees) and accelerated the distribution of the Disaster Response Fund to the state governments from June to May 2020. Lastly, different taxes and customs duties on vaccines, oxygen, and oxygen-related equipment have been waived to increase their availability. Under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, the Central government announced a 1.7 lakh rupees crore relief package. The package, which was disclosed by the Finance Minister of India on March 26, 2020, included: 60237.35 USD in insurance coverage for each health worker battling Covid-19, for the next three months, 800 million poor citizens will receive free food—5 kg of rice or wheat and 1 kg of preferred pulses, 6.02 USD per month for the next three months for 200 million Jan-Dhan account holders who are women, raising MNREGA wages from Rs 182 to Rs 202 per day, ex-gratia payments of 12.05 USD to 30 million poor senior citizens, widows, and disabled people and Pradhan Mantri Kisan Yojana will provide 24.09 USD to 87 million farmers.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Program (MGNREGA) and the provision of subsidized food grains served as useful buffers, keeping unemployment low and social stability high. In May 2020, 36 million people were looking for work (25 million in May 2019). In June 2020, this figure was increased to 40 million (the mean of 23.6 million in the 2013–2019 periods) [31]. The government increased its budgetary allocation to the highest level in the history of the program, totalling one trillion rupees. Similarly, in addition to heavily subsidized rice and wheat supplies, a special arrangement of a free supply of 5 kg of wheat or rice per individual for three months was launched and has since been extended by the other three months for 800 million people. There had also been arrangements made for cash transfers to farmers and women to the tune of 500-billion-rupee.

However, if we see the other side of the coin, we witness that MGNREGA, though an ideal program during the pandemic, has a cap of 100 days of guaranteed employment and does not comprise urban areas. The agriculture sector in India failed to absorb the additional labor due to huge underlying disguised unemployment. According to a post-pandemic survey, the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector expected their earnings to fall by up to 50% that year in 2020. Small and micro enterprises, having limited access to formal credit, account for 30% of the GDP and employ more than 110 million people in India. This was also one of the hardest hit sectors, despite several structural and economic arrangements being made for their survival and growth, especially during and right after the pandemic started waning out. The challenge was twin fold as both the demand and the supply side of the economy had got derailed.

1.6 Monetary policy response

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been on the frontlines of providing policy support, deploying the full range of instruments to ensure the orderly functioning of financial markets, and maintaining financial stability. In terms of monetary policy, the RBI declared a significant loosening of policy. It cut the policy repo rate (the interest rate where the banks borrow money from the RBI) by 75 basis points to 4.4 percent and the reverse repo rate (the interest rate on which banks lend money to the RBI) by 90 basis points to 4.0 percent [30]. The RBI's overarching goal was to ensure ‘normal market functioning, nurture growth impulses, and preserve financial stability’—all three priority actions.

The Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee reduced the policy repo rate by 115 basis points and declared an accommodative monetary policy stance. In addition, the central bank declared several liquidity steps to combat the negative effects of COVID-19, including 3-month cessation on debt-servicing of all time loans outstanding, including working capital loans, and increased the short-term loan limit for states from 30 to 60 percent (declared on 1 April 2020), giving states an alternative source to receive money from the RBI rather than relying on supplemental market borrowings. In a nutshell, the RBI's actions are reasonable. The effective money cost in the system will be smaller as interest rates are cut and inflation rates fall. Despite the minor ambiguity surrounding the home loan repayment EMIs, this is also an all-in response. Table 1 shows India's overall monetary and fiscal support since March 2020.

Table 1 India's overall monetary and fiscal support since March 2020
Full size table

From Table 1, it can be seen that the government of India has taken various fiscal and monetary policy measures to cope with the current aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ending of the disease is in a quagmire to date. The measures shown in the table are those that helped in increasing consumption as well as capital expenditures in both the private and public sectors. The RBI has played a crucial role during the pandemic, attempting to reinforce the policies of the government to cushion the fallout from the pandemic and place the economy on the path to recovery [30].

2 Concluding observations

While India has struggled to survive the serious implications of the global crisis, proactive policy reforms in various sectors have enabled the social, political, and economic system to sustain itself. There are evident efforts on the part of the state to step up its policy reform measures towards the health and education sector and to create and preserve the livelihoods of the disadvantaged sections through various schemes. In the longer run, there is a need to focus more on employment-intensive investments and cover the social protection gaps vis-à-vis women, migrants, and marginalized segments. Not only this, there is an urgent need to train more health worker staff and promote skilled employment. The crisis demands us to take this as an opportunity to revamp the drawbacks and better prepare for uncalled future adversaries.

To conclude, India's policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic serves as a microcosm of the challenges and triumphs experienced by nations across the globe. While the journey has been arduous, it has also been illuminating, offering valuable insights that can guide the way forward for a post-COVID society. The multifaceted approach India undertook, from implementing lockdowns to expanding healthcare infrastructure and launching an ambitious vaccination campaign, demonstrates the importance of adaptability and innovation in the face of an evolving crisis. These experiences underscore the need for governments and international organizations to remain vigilant, flexible, and prepared for future health emergencies. Moreover, the emphasis on proactive governance, data-driven decision-making, and community engagement highlights the pivotal role of public participation and transparent communication in building trust and promoting cooperation. These principles should remain at the forefront of policymaking, reinforcing the importance of people-centered responses.

As we move into a post-COVID era, the lessons gleaned from India's journey must not only be acknowledged but integrated into global strategies for health and well-being. The way forward requires investments in healthcare infrastructure, robust disaster preparedness, and equitable access to healthcare services. These steps are essential not only to mitigate future crises but also to address existing healthcare disparities. In a post-COVID society, international collaboration must become the norm, as pandemics know no borders. Sharing knowledge, expertise, and resources on a global scale is vital for a coordinated response to any health emergency. India's response to the COVID-19 pandemic offers a roadmap for building a more resilient, equitable, and prepared society. By learning from the experiences of this diverse and complex nation, we can collectively strive for a world that is better equipped to navigate the uncertainties of the future, ensuring the health and well-being of all its inhabitants.