There are many hot takes about the impacts the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will have on the environment. It is temporarily reducing emissions — good — but also resulting in a wave of single-use plastics — bad, while also letting governments, including the United States, neglect environmental protections — very bad.
There’s one thing we should be able to all agree on, though. The pandemic is making clear the direct connection between a healthy natural environment and human health.
This pandemic shows why well-being matters for everyone
“All of our well-being is dependent on the well-being of everyone else…and the natural environment,” Kinari Webb, a doctor and founder of the nonprofit Health in Harmony, told TriplePundit. “We just forget that so often, but it is a fundamental truth and this horrible pandemic is teaching us that.”Oregon, takes a holistic view of public health. The organization sees it as being directly connected to natural health and biodiversity. One project demonstrating its ethos is within the Indonesian side of the tropical island of Borneo, where the NGO works with villagers to provide healthcare access in exchange for local involvement in ecosystems restoration.
“Our thing is always that human and environmental health are intimately intertwined and that we don’t have to think of them as competitive, that both can thrive,” Webb said.
While Health in Harmony has had a positive impact in Borneo, such success, unfortunately, is not the norm. Over the past several decades, humans have devoured an ever-increasing amount of the natural world for our use. Agribusiness has expanded plantations into ecological zones in Southeast Asia and the Amazon. We’ve built mega-dams, ports and power plants in sensitive regions. Air and water pollution, from industrial sources, is choking cities and turning waterways toxic around the world.
How an imbalance with nature led to outbreaks like COVID-19
Alongside this is a burgeoning animal trafficking trade. Elephants, rhinos, pangolins and sharks are just some of the species that have been caught and sent, alive or dead, across borders to markets around the world. There’s evidence that wildlife trafficking played a role in the emergence of COVID-19 in a wet market in Wuhan, China, late last year, but this is not just a problem in China. It’s a global issue.
Other recent diseases such as MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) and SARS also had connections to wildlife trafficking or the sales of wild animals. But the causes of other illnesses such as the 2009 H1N1 influenza, which emerged in U.S. and Mexican factory farms, should also be on our radar. This U.S. hosts many massive factory farms, and there are concerns that these could play a role in reducing the efficacy of antibacterial drugs, or lead to the formation of dangerous superbugs.
“Industrial farming has risks,” said Maarten Hoek, a senior public health manager with Madaktari Africa, who has extensive experience in sub-Saharan Africa, during a recent press conference. “When we put thousands of animals in a very small space, it has a lot of opportunity to spread, and each time it spreads, there are small changes in the pathogen which may result in a virus being more easily spread, and being able to connect to human tissue.”
In the end, we need a renewed focus on climate
It is hard to make a direct connection between all of these human impacts and the increased risk of zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19 or MERS, mostly due to the lack of data from the past. But it is likely that known risks — environmental degradation, factory, farming and the wildlife trade — all make the emergence of infectious diseases more likely.
And then there’s climate change, which is also likely to raise more global risks due its myriad impacts on humans and the environment.
“Climate change leads to a lot of changes in vegetation, in animal behavior, in human behavior, and these may cause diseases to spread geographically, and diseases being able to infect new animal species,” Hoek said. “It’s a very unpredictable effect.”
The solution? Once the pandemic is under control, invest in the environment. Restore ecosystems. Eliminate the global trade in illegal wildlife. Shut down dangerous factory farms. We now know how badly a disease can impact our lives, our most vulnerable people and the economy. Brands, many of which are also suffering from the coming recession, now understand all too well the risks of business as usual.
It’s time to transform our relationship with nature into a more positive one that is less exploitative and creates more understanding of the value to human health — and the economy — of a resilient natural world.
COVID-19 | India can turn this crisis into an environmental and economic opportunity
Three weeks after being locked into homes there is now the beginning of a realisation that our future as a species demands a drastic rethink of our present style of destructive and exploitative living — a living which thrives on ‘development’ .
The Vice-President has elaborated on this, quoting from the Rig Veda to underline the inescapable link between the happiness of mankind and all other lives on earth — animals, plants, and rivers. Other religions, like Buddhism, also base themselves on the ‘oneness’ of all things.
On another level, scientists, such as, late Barry Commoner have been warning since 1971 that ‘everything is connected to everything else’. In 2006, biologists found a dramatic ‘bootprint’ of changes in the ecosystem, indicating nature in trouble, and inevitably, humankind. However, governments ignored it all, to deliver greater cities, more technology, fast cars and faster trains. In the process, waste piled up, the air was poisoned, and the water foamed.
India did the same, but with less excuse. This country has an age-old tradition of respecting environment, which is seen in the worship of a whole legion of birds and animals.
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Apart from the temples to Ganesh and Hanuman, are lesser known traditions of respecting life around us. The Sarus Crane, for instance, is seen as a symbol of loyalty and love. The crow is viewed as a departed soul in much of South India, ensuring that it is fed regularly. The peacock is forever known as the ‘vahana’ of Indra, while the Brahminy kite is that of Vishnu.
Trees and plants are also knit into religion. The kalpavriksh thrives in paintings as the ‘tree of life’, while the mahua is intrinsic to weddings of certain tribes. There is the humble banana tree that is equated to a guru’s presence, and the lore that surrounds the sacred fig (peepal) that leads it to becoming the central ‘deity’ in a temple. Plants, such as the holy basil (tulsi) retains its status as sacred, as does the neem. All of this is wisdom that is handed down through centuries.
Over the years the rituals remained, but the lesson that these species were intrinsic to our own lives was lost. With rapid and unplanned urban growth these rituals have descended into the macabre. For instance, the belief that seeing an owl is lucky during the time of Dussehra has led to animal traffickers bundling helpless owls into a sack, so that believers can pay good money to take a peek. After all, where can the average Mumbaikar or Delhite hope to see an owl?
In the same way, the peacock has been hunted down for its feathers for that fan in the prayer room. The peepul trees of road side ‘temples’ have long gone, reduced to a stump as the entirely illegal structure expands.
Then there is further descent into ‘traditional’ medicine, particularly for aphrodisiacs. The white owl meat is prized for this, while snakes are fair game to a variety of cultures. The donkey and the leopard have been hunted down for similar ends. The Chinese do it on a large scale, but we’re not far behind.
A culture that once entirely understood that all other life on earth was necessary to keep our own species going, has been lost entirely in the cities where more than 30 percent of the population lives. Mumbai’s population has increased six times since 1950 while Delhi’s has increased by 26 times. This concentration has naturally led to India being tagged as having the top-most polluted cities in the world.
Unsurprisingly, new research suggests that people already exposed to long periods of polluted air are more vulnerable to COVID-19. Other diseases lie around the corner. There were more than 600,000 dengue cases which killed more than a 1,000 people in the last four years. Right now, the health ministry struggling with an outbreak of swine flu (H1N1) with 28 dead, and 83,000 cases in the last three years. Overcrowded and dirty cities are sitting ducks for viruses and vector-borne diseases alike.
Leaders such as former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill believed that a crisis was an opportunity. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while he was Chief Minister of Gujarat, was well aware of this in terms of the rebuilding the state after a devastating earthquake in 2001. Infrastructure has been a key pathway for spurring development in recent times, with some 40 Asian countries, including China, building new cities from the ground up.
In 2017, the Modi-led central government announced plans to double housing and commercial space, including the ‘Smart Cities’ programme. However that plan was structured for a pre-COVID19 world. Given that the government is urgently looking for any way to rev up growth and employment, there is the possibility to channel an estimated $70 trillion in private funds looking for a place to invest, into a new infrastructure project.
That would mean either a re-jig of the existing projects such as the ‘smart cities’ projects or the building of small self-contained cities linked to villages in a hub and spoke model. The model, however, needs a learning of the lessons of the pandemic, which includes law and order, health, zero emissions, new energy sources and, most of all, which knits in the environment into its overall design for a near perfect balance.
There’s been enough talk of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, which means the earth is indeed family — now implement it. Show the world how it’s done. Our own lives quite literally depend on itWhile the fear of the novel coronavirus pandemic is still spreading, air pollution and noise pollution are significantly decreasing. On the one hand, people are staying indoors to avoid chances of contamination. On the other hand, sightings of migratory birds, and endangered species of animals have become daily updates on social media. The novel coronavirus may be claiming victims all across the globe and keeping people sealed indoors due to the spiralling fear and mass confusion, it seems so have certain positive effects in India as well as abroad.
Positive Impact Specially on Indian Economy
1. It’s a big opportunity for the Indian economy
The Reserve Bank of India and the government will have to act quickly as a united front. Think tax cuts, increased liquidity, forbearance to lenders, credit and credit-guarantee to SMEs, and lower interest rates.
The post-COVID-19 scenario for India does not look as grim as most people deem it to be according to leading economists of the country. Combined with a stimulus package of $100-120 billion, it will restore the purchasing power to the populace sooner than earlier deemed during the onset of the COVID-19 crises.
If India takes a leaf out of the pages of the US and Singapore economies and trusts the indigenous businesses, the economic recovery will be much sooner for the country.
2. Falling prices of fuel
As of the beginning of April, the state fuel retailers in Delhi sold around 17% less petrol and 25% less diesel in March 2020, as compared to March 2019.
This comes after the initiation of a country-wide lockdown, where all major transportation have been stopped to control and contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Private vehicles on the roads is a rare sight as well. By the second week of March 2020, local prices of petrol and diesel were down by INR 4.55 and INR 4.70 per litre in Mumbai.
Economists expect diesel and petrol prices to drop further as crude oil prices hit a 13-month low in India. The crude oil prices in the US are falling steadily and the cost might average out at $43 per barrel in 2020 in contrast to $64 per barrel in 2019. A $1 drop in crude oil prices will correspond to a reduction in the country’s import bill by a sharp INR 2,900 crore. The falling rates of crude oil will leave more liquid cash in the hands of the vehicle owners by the end of 2020. However, economists also state that there is a good chance that the state and central governments will increase the duty on fuels to make up for the revenue deficits.
3. Crime incidents have become rarer
Crime rates in Delhi and Gurugram have plummeted in the last one month after the COVID-19 fear almost paralyzed the cities.
Delhi police have registered only 2,000 cases including petty theft, robbery and automobile theft since March 15, 2020. It represents a sharp 42% drop in crime rates in the capital of India. The drop in crime rates correspond to the reduction in the percentage of vehicle thefts, which has given some mental peace to owners of personal and commercial vehicles some mental peace in these tumultuous times. A similar drop in crime rates has also been witnessed across other major cities like Kolkata, Chennai, and Mumbai. The Prime Minister’s decision of a complete lockdown for 21-days and the vigilance by the local law enforcement has contributed significantly to the steep decline in the crime rate in several cities and towns.
4. The air is cleaner and the environment is greener
Greenhouse gas emissions and pollution levels across the country have fallen significantly. Half a year ago Delhi was gasping for a breath of fresh air saw “positively alpine” air quality a couple of days ago. Delhi is currently enjoying one of the lowest air pollution levels seen in the past decade or longer. The same is true for other metropolitan cities like Mumbai and Kolkata.
5. Boosting localism
Up until the beginning of 2020, it was all about internationalization and globalization of businesses. Right now, it’s all about staying home, inquiring about the health of your neighbours, leaving home only to buy locally and boosting the local community.
This lockdown has inspired family-time and local-time among the millions of citizens living in the metros of the country. While people are rarely leaving their homes, if at all, they are spending more time on streaming platforms, playing board games with their family and spending quality time with their kids.
6. Wildlife is rejuvenating
Apart from sighting the occasional leopard on the streets of quasi-urban Maharashtra and spotting flocks of flamingos in Navi Mumbai, other wildlife including that of mountain goats, bison, wild cats, fishing cats, civets and birds.
Migratory birds are returning to lakes and water bodies they had once abandoned due to heavy pollution and human intervention.
Nature is healing while people restrict their movement outdoors and vehicles retreat to garages and depots.
Not everything about the novel coronavirus pandemic is abysmal as we can see from the above six instances.
Like every other pandemic, this too shall pass, but not without exacting its toll. In the meantime, self-isolation during this extended period of lockdown can become a tinsel bit more bearable when we manage to focus on the positive impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to India and the rest of the world!
Negative Impact of Covid-19 on Global and Indian Economy
Covid-19 impact: According to IMF, the global economy is expected to shrink by over 3 per cent in 2020 – the steepest slowdown since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
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Migrant workers try to catch a packet of biscuits given by locals in Lucknow, Thursday. (Express Photo: Vishal Srivastav)
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, several countries across the world resorted to lockdowns to “flatten the curve” of the infection. These lockdowns meant confining millions of citizens to their homes, shutting down businesses and ceasing almost all economic activity. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the global economy is expected to shrink by over 3 per cent in 2020 – the steepest slowdown since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Now, as some countries lift restrictions and gradually restart their economies, here’s a look at how the pandemic has affected them and how they have coped.
How hard has the economy been hit?
The pandemic has pushed the global economy into a recession, which means the economy starts shrinking and growth stops.
In the US, Covid-19-related disruptions have led to millions filing for unemployment benefits. In April alone, the figures were at 20.5 million, and are expected to rise as the impact of the pandemic on the US labour market worsens. As per a Reuters report, since March 21, more than 36 million have filed for unemployment benefits, which is almost a quarter of the working-age population.
Further, an early analysis by IMF reveals that the manufacturing output in many countries has gone done, which reflects a fall in external demand and growing expectations of a fall in domestic demand.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) and global growth
The IMF’s estimate of the global economy growing at -3 per cent in 2020 is an outcome “far worse” than the 2009 global financial crises. Economies such as the US, Japan, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain are expected to contract this year by 5.9, 5.2, 6.5, 7, 7.2, 9.1 and 8 per cent respectively.
Advanced economies have been hit harder, and together they are expected to grow by -6 per cent in 2020. Emerging markets and developing economies are expected to contract by -1 per cent. If China is excluded from this pool of countries, the growth rate for 2020 is expected to be -2.2 per cent.
China’s GDP dropped by 36.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2020, while South Korea’s output fell by 5.5 per cent, since the country didn’t impose a lockdown but followed a strategy of aggressive testing, contact tracing and quarantining.
In Europe, the GDPs of France, Spain and Italy fell by 21.3, 19.2 and 17.5 per cent respectively.
Oil and natural gas
Due to the fall in travel, global industrial activity has been affected. Oil prices fell further in March as the transportation section, which accounts for 60 per cent of the oil demand, was hit due to several countries imposing lockdowns.
Not only oil, early this year in China, due to Covid-19-related containment measures, the demand for natural gas fell, as a result of which many Chinese LNG buyers halted their imports as storage tanks filled.
Industrial Metals
Due to lockdowns in China, followed by in the US and Europe, the demand for industrial metals reduced as factories shut down. As per IMF, China accounts for roughly half of the global demand for industrial metals.
Food and beverages
IMF projects a decrease in food prices by 2.6 per cent in 2020, caused by supply chain disruptions, border delays, food security concerns in regions affected by Covid-19 and export restrictions.
In the lockdown period, while the price of cereals, oranges, seafood and arabica coffee has increased, prices of tea, meat, wool and cotton have declined. Further, the decline in oil prices has put a downward pressure on the prices for palm oil, soy oil, sugar and corn.
How have countries coped?
According to an assessment by the World Economic Forum (WEF), supporting SMEs and larger businesses is crucial for maintaining employment and financial stability.
In India, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced some details of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package, to provide relief to Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) in the form of an increase in credit guarantees.
Many advanced economies in the world have rolled out support packages. While India’s economic stimulus package is 10 per cent of its GDP, Japan’s is 21.1 per cent, followed by the US (13 per cent), Sweden (12 per cent), Germany (10.7 per cent), France (9.3 per cent), Spain (7.3 per cent) and Italy (5.7 per cent).
However, the WEF notes, “…there is concern that the size of packages may prove insufficient for the duration of the crisis; that disbursement may be slower than is needed; that not all firms in need would be targeted; and that such programmes may be overly reliant on debt financing.”
In Asia, countries including India, China, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea account for about 85 per cent of all the Covid-19 cases on the continent.
South Korea stands out, since business and economic activities were not completely stopped and therefore, their economy was not severely affected.
China recently lifted its lockdown and has since then been gradually reopening its economy without an aggressive second wave of infections so far.
Further, even as economic activity resumes gradually, the situation will take time to normalise, as consumer behaviours change as a result of continued social distancing and uncertainty about how the pandemic will evolve.
For instance, in its World Economic Outlook report for 2020, the IMF mentions that firms may start hiring more people and expanding their payroll only slowly, as they may not be clear about the demand for their output.
Therefore, along with clear and effective communication, broad monetary and fiscal stimuli will be required to be coordinated on an international scale for maximum impact, and, “would be most effective to boost spending in the recovery phase.”
COVID-19 and its impact on Indian economy
With the number of COVID-19 cases leaning dangerously more than 200,000 and the worldwide death toll crossing more than 8,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the virus outbreak a pandemic in the second week of March 2020, four months after the novel virus first made headlines.
Nearly 162 countries are steadily going into lockdown, and businesses across the globe are operating in fear of an impending collapse of global financial markets. This situation, clubbed with sluggish economic growth in the previous year, especially in a developing country like India, is leading to extremely volatile market conditions. Let’s understand how the coronavirus is impacting business and subsequent tax reforms in India.
With rising unemployment, interest rates, and fiscal deficit, the economy in India has seen better days. Adding fuel to this fire is the novel Coronavirus that is sending tremors down Indian trade markets dependent on China for imports.
Raw materials and spare parts
Nearly 55% of electronics imported by India originate from China. These imports have already slid down to 40% in light of the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdown. As a countermeasure, India is considering the promotion of indigenous production in a bid to reduce dependency on a single market. Additionally, China is India’s thirdlargest export partner for export of raw materials like organic chemicals, mineral fuels, cotton, etc.; and a lockdown of the countries is likely to lead to a substantial trade deficit for India.
Pharmaceuticals
The toll on the pharmaceutical industry is of significant concern for India, mainly as 70% of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) are imported from China. These active pharmaceutical ingredients are essential to a large number of pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in the country. As COVID-19 is rapidly making its way through India, medication is going to be the number one consumer demand, and because there aren’t nearly enough APIs to manufacture drugs, the subsequent traders and the market are witnessing skyrocketing prices. The prices of vitamins and penicillin alone already see a 50% surge.
Tourism
India is big on cultural and historical tourism, attracting domestic and foreign nationals throughout the year. It does not come as a surprise that a large number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in India include foreign tourists. But with visas being suspended and tourist attractions being shut indefinitely, the whole tourism value chain, which includes hotels, restaurants, attractions, agents, and operators is expected to face losses worth thousands of crores. Experts believe the tourism industry is likely to take a massive hit, and it could end up crippling the industry for the foreseeable future.
Aviation
After the Government of India indefinitely suspended tourist visas, airlines are said to be working under pressure. Nearly 600 international flights to and from India were canceled for varying periods. Around 90 domestic flights have been canceled, leading to a sharp drop in airline fares, even on popular local routes. Private airport operators have requested the Government to grant permission to impose a nominal passenger facilitation charge on airfares to cover the increased operating cost.
Will rationalizing tax rates or providing tax relief help curb the impact of COVID-19 on the Indian economy?
Speaking on measures to combat the economic impact from the rapidly spreading coronavirus, Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund, Gita Gopinath said that Government policymakers would need to implement a substantial targeted fiscal. She also advised on broader monetary stimulus and policy rate cuts to help normalize the economic situation.
India is already running short on its GST revenue collection, and the coronavirus scare could make matters worse. With less than 200 active COVID-19 cases in a 1.33 billion population, the Government of India is not in a rush to make any drastic changes in policy and offer tax relief (even though Indian enterprise leaders are calling for cuts in import duties). They have, however, announced an extension in filings of GST for FY 2018-19 until June 30, 2020. India has also rescheduled the introduction of mandatory e-invoicing until October 1, 2020.
The learning curve
Every crisis serves as a learning opportunity for organizations, and this pandemic is proving to be quite the lesson. Here’s how organizations are figuring out their next moves.
Remote working
With major cities on lockdown, organizations have had no choice but to dig into their business continuity and contingency plans. Ever since the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in India, numerous companies have instituted a ‘work from home’ drill using critical resources to understand whether remote working conditions are feasible. That being said, remote working also has its limitations and cannot be carried out by other sectors like retail, hospitality, or manufacturing, leaving them no choice but to face business interruption.
Safety measures for employees
Employee safety is the need of the hour. Still, with no experience of dealing with a virus that has the potential to spread rapidly, most companies are brushing off their hands by asking employees to stay home. Some organizations, however, are implementing measures like temperature screening, disinfection of office premises, setting up COVID-19 response teams, distribution of COVID-19 precautionary packages.
An open line of communication
Even though the mortality rate of COVID-19 is lower than the 1918 influenza pandemic, it has caused a widespread panic due to unclear lines of communication. Organizationsare stepping up and maintaining an open line of communication with all their stakeholders, including employees and customers.
Opportunity in a crisis
Like India, several international economies are becoming cognizant of the risk they face by being overly dependent on one market. Making the current situation a learning opportunity, CXOs of Indian multinationals, who recently attended the annual meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), believe this is the time Indiacan work on capturing potentially 40% of their competitor’s market share by looking at indigenous production of goods, furthering the country’s Make in India campaign.