An Economic Outlook to “The New Normal”- Mission Begin Again: Post Covid 19

Abstract

By the start of the year, 2020 news of coronavirus spreading in the different parts of the world was doing the rounds, and sometime in mid-March, with immediate effect lockdown across India was declared by Central Government.

This pandemic has resulted in an economic scenario that was never experienced before. The amount of the pandemic and the havoc it has exhausted on economies globally is unparalleled. Never has the world gone in a total locked down approach not even during the great wars. Since half of the world's population is locked down in trying to stop the spread of COVID-19, a public health emergency that has claimed thousands of lives and flashed uncertainties of the worst global recession. This suggests that there will be a profound impact on the world of work, as well as mental and physical well-being. Although no one would choose to go through this crisis, social scientists, management professors, and psychologists across the world are observing closely, eager to investigate the effects of this enforced global experiment.

Like every other country, India is bracing itself for a period of extended total lockdown in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic spread, entrepreneurs, business leaders are coping with newly distressing apprehensions. The lockdown has already lifted in phases but there’s no disagreeing that everyone has now entered an undiscovered new paradigm, where ‘surviving against unknown’ becomes the new norm. The economic impact of the outbreak will outshine processes and operations for years to come. However organizations cope with existence and customer retention, even stress and burnout, job uncertainty, discharge, retrenchment, downsizing, emotional and psychological stress take a center-stage, it’s increasingly clear that recovery and improvements too, will have to be expedited, post the immediate crisis. The recognition that the right time to prepare for recovery is now!

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced every organization to move intellectual work from their offices to their employees’ homes. Right now, everybody is uncertain about how long it will take for the virus to diminish and for work and the economy to return to normal. There’s another question that corporate leaders need to ask: What might not return to normal? What are the new ways of operating in the time of the virus which can be superior to the old routines?

Simply, what might be the “new normal”?