The Covid-19 pandemic has been the worst health calamity in India for at least a century. But beyond the direct impact of the virus on the health of tens of millions of Indians, the economic devastation experienced by the country due to policy responses to the disease has been unprecedented. This shock to the economy is so severe as to merit the description ‘catastrophe’ and is unlikely to be simply wished away once the pandemic recedes. In The Making of a Catastrophe, Jayati Ghosh analyses the disastrous economic effects of the pandemic, and the lockdowns and other policies that followed in its wake. This book covers many areas of the economy that were affected such as investment, consumption, savings, finance, and employment, and goes deep into the specific consequences of government actions on agriculture, manufacturing, construction as well as old and ‘new’ services.
Cogently argued by one of India’s best-known economists, The Making of a Catastrophe takes a close look at the inadequate and often confounding manner in which the government and its agencies handled the ravaging of the economy by the pandemic.
Jayati Ghosh taught economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, for nearly thirty-five years. She is now a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, USA. She has authored and/or edited nineteen books (including the co-edited Elgar Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Development, 2014, and Informal Women Workers in the Global South and nearly 200 scholarly articles. She has received several national and international prizes for her research. She has advised governments in India and other countries, including as Member of the National Knowledge Commission of India (2005–09). She is the executive secretary of International Development Economics Associates, an international network of heterodox development economists. She has consulted for various international organizations including the ILO, UNDP, UNCTAD, UN-DESA, UNRISD, and UN Women and is a member of many international commissions. She writes regularly for newspapers, journals, and blogs.
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