Countdown: Can India Rebound from the Meltdown of the Century?

The unprecedented calamity of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially a harsh lockdown, battered the Indian economy at a time when it was already grappling with a deep structural slowdown. Almost a year on, when the first signs of a tentative recovery were just visible, India was hit by a devastating second wave of the pandemic. Countdown tries to make economic sense of this disaster.

As millions lost their jobs and walked back hundreds of kilometres or looked in vain for a hospital bed or oxyge...