Sustainable Strategies for Economic Growth and Decent Work: New Normal
Authors: Sana Ashish Kumar , Biswas Bappaditya , Das Samyabrata , Poddar Sandeep 
Published: September 2022

Almost every country throughout the globe has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The virus's propagation has a disastrous effect on both human health and the economy as a whole. The COVID-19 global recession is the worst since World War II ended. According to the IMF's April 2021 World Economic Outlook Report, the global economy declined by 3.5 percent in 2020, 7 percent drop from the 3.4 percent growth predicted in October 2019. While almost every IMF-covered nation saw negative growth in 2020, the decline was more extreme in the world's poorest regions. The global supply system and international trade of all countries, including India, were affected by the nationwide lockdown in India and around the world to stop the pandemic from spreading. Since the beginning of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the global business climate. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant public health and economic problems in South Asian countries and the worst impacted being India, Bangladesh and Pakistan in recent years. The nationwide lockdown adopted by the countries was effective in slowing down the spread of the coronavirus in South Asia, but it came at a substantial financial and social cost to society. Manufacturing activities in Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines have shrunk sharply. Tourism, trade and remittances, and all major sources of foreign money for South Asian countries, have been substantially impacted. The COVID-19 spread has had a significant influence on global financial markets. The international financial and energy markets substantially dropped as the number of cases began to rise globally, primarily in the United States, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Iran, and South Korea along with South Asian countries. Reduced travel has had a substantial impact on service businesses such as tourism, hospitality, and transportation. According to IMF, (space required after,) 2020 South Asian economies are likely to shrink for the first time in 4 decades. The pandemic has pushed millions into poverty and widened income and wealth disparities because of premature deaths, workplace absenteeism and productivity losses. A negative supply shock has occurred with manufacturing and productive activity decreasing due to global supply chain disruptions and factory closures. This resulted in a severe short-term challenge for policymakers, especially when food and commodity prices rise, exacerbating economic insecurity. Failure to achieve equitable recovery might result in social and political unrest, as well as harsh responses from governments that have been less tolerant of dissident voices in recent years. Almost every area of the Indian economy is being ravaged by the pandemic. But the scope and degree of the damage vary from sector to sector within each area. One of the worst-affected areas in India is the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector. Apart from MSMEs, Agriculture and Agro-based industries, Banking companies and NBFCs and Social Sectors are also in jeopardy. The pandemic creates turmoil in the Capital Market and Mutual Funds industry. India's auto manufacturing and its ancillary sectors were badly hit during the initial stages of the pandemic when lockdown measures were adopted and the situation continued to remain subdued for many quarters. It is still uncertain whether this recession will have long-term structural ramifications for the global economy or will have only short-term financial and economic consequences. Additionally, the speed and the strength of the healing may be crucially dependent on the capability of the governments to accumulate and roll out the COVID-19 vaccines. In the context of the pandemic and its devastating impact on the Indian economy, an edited volume is proposed which intends to identify and analyse the footfalls of the pandemic on various sectors and industries in India. The proposed edited volume endeavours to understand the status, impact, problems, policies and prospects of the agricultural and agro-based industries, Banking and NBFCs, MSMEs, Social Sector, Capital Market and Mutual Funds during the pandemic and beyond. The proposed volume will contain research papers/articles covering the overall impact of the pandemic on various sectors, measures to be adopted to combat the situation and suggestions for overcoming the hurdles. For this, research papers and articles will be called from academicians, research scholars and industrialists having common research interests to share their insights relating to this area. It is anticipated that the volume will include twenty to twenty-five chapters. An editorial committee will be constituted with three chief editors and another external editor to review the articles following a double-blind review process to assure the quality of the papers according to the global standards and publisher's guidelines. The expected time to complete the entire review process is one month, and the publication process will start thereafter. The proposed volume is believed to be having significant socio-economic implications and is intended to cater to a large audience which includes academicians, researchers, students, corporates, policymakers, investors and general readers at large.