The Editorial Analysis: The Stepping Stones in the Post-pandemic World

Table of Contents

The Stepping Stones in the Post-pandemic World- Relevance for UPSC Exam

GS Paper 2: Governance, Administration and Challenges- Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

The Editorial Analysis: Omicron Shadow

The Stepping Stones in the Post-pandemic World- Context

In the Post pandemic world, the Governments, global institutions, industry, academia and non-profit organisations around the world have joined hands to tackle the global challenge and help countries rebuild their economies.
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted lives and livelihoods across the world; an economic catastrophe that affected growth, trade and investments, and employment, among others.

The Editorial Analysis- Births and Rights

The Stepping Stones in the Post-pandemic World: Impact of COVID-19

Economic Impact: Covid pandemic has led to an economic catastrophe that affected growth, trade and investments, and employment, among others.
- Exit from the massive stimulus packages itself may pose risks of economic and financial instability.
Deepening of Inequality: COVID-19 led to the growing inequality of incomes among countries as well as within countries.
Global Supply Chain Disruption: the pandemic severely disrupted global supply chains and set the global trade trajectory on a downward path.
Structural Changes: certain structural changes are likely to become permanent in the future and this is especially true of the digital economy. For example, telemedicine, remote work and e-learning, delivery services, etc.

The Editorial Analysis- The Need to Reopen Anganwadis

The Stepping Stones in the Post-pandemic World- India’s Role

Economic Reforms: India’s recent reforms, role in combating the pandemic, and startup vibrancy, among other factors, have attracted global attention.
- These reforms can help India attain a faster growth path, provided its integration with the world economy and trade gains strategic intensity.
Leadership Role Played during COVID Crisis:
- Besides protecting its own citizens, India provided medical supplies and equipment to more than 150 countries in the world.
- India also played a leadership role in the supply of COVID-19 vaccines, besides undertaking a massive vaccination programme for its own citizens.
- India is undertaking serious action in meeting its other global commitments including climate change where its targets will make a difference.

The Editorial Analysis- Small Grant but a Big Opportunity for Local Bodies

The Stepping Stones in the Post-pandemic World- Positive signs of economic recovery

For this year, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) indicates an increase of 22.4% in the value of global merchandise trade compared with 2020.
World trade is expected to stand about 15% higher than before the COVID-19.
The global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows in the first half of 2021 reached an estimated $852 billion, showing stronger than expected rebound momentum.
- FDI flows in developing economies also increased significantly, totaling $427 billion in the first half of 2021.

The Stepping Stones in the Post-pandemic World- Way Forward

International Collaboration and Cooperation: to ensure economic growth, building competitiveness of the investment climate, ensuring sustainable development paths and adapting to technology acceleration.
- Partnership Summit organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) could be a good starting point for India.
- The convergence of the global scientific community for vaccine development and genome sequencing has set a new precedent in international cooperation.
Ensuring Global Partnership: Global Partnership will help in building resilience to cope with the threats posed by pandemics and other man-made and natural disasters.
- Global partnerships help in building mutual trust and understanding by agreeing upon common rules and standards and sharing of best practices.
Focus on Trade and Investment: It is important as Trade and investment flows have proved to be an engine of growth for many countries, in spite of temporary supply chain glitches due to covid-19 pandemic.
- Facilitate trade partnerships at both regional and multilateral levels to better protect consumers and producers.
- Cooperation on trade facilitation for enhancing open and transparent markets, technical assistance and reduction of complex processes and arrangements must be promoted.
Addressing the Economic Inequality: Economic Inequality among countries as well as within countries must be addressed for the long-term sustainability of the growth process.
Building a sustainable and disaster-proof supply chain: should be the top priority for the countries, especially for ensuring effective and timely medical supplies.
An ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation: this must be created with targeted policies and interventions with an aim to enhance productivity and generate employment.
Filling Technological Gap by ensuring Equitable adoption of Technologies: Digital economy completely transformed the future of work and the business landscape.
- This necessitates equitable adaptation to advanced technologies and tools, building robust infrastructure, and occupational transitions.
- The technological gap can be reduced by ensuring skill development and worker training, investments in education and vocational training, and capacity building.
International alliances and cooperation on Building sustainable solutions: Like green technology, resource efficiency, sustainable finance, etc.,
- These sustainable solutions must be promoted to fast-track meeting the sustainable development goals and ensuring all-round development.

The Stepping Stones in the Post-pandemic World: Conclusion

In the post-pandemic world, it will be critical for India to improve on its investment climate and systematically target its export capabilities across sectors and regions.
Ease of doing business and new free trade agreement with major markets will help it integrate closely with the world through trade and investment partnerships.

The Editorial Analysis- Small Grant but a Big Opportunity for Local Bodies