Indians in 2022
By Venkatesh Raghavan
Mumbai: What can we expect in our mixed bag of fortunes for the year 2022? Even as the pandemic problem continues to bog us with the Omicron variant, businesses, entertainment houses and the hospitality sector are anticipating that they will fare better than in the previous two years. It may also be sunshine time if we succeed in completing its vaccination drive on a bigger chunk of our country’s 130 crore population.
With many of our cities facing restrictions on both bars and theatres that are forced to operate at 50% capacity, besides fewer households that have spending capacity when it comes to eating outside, it might take a good six to eight months before normalcy gets restored in this sector. The more disturbing part is the time that it will take for pilgrimage centers like Shirdi or Sant Gajanan Maharaj temple in Shegaon or Vithoba temple and other such centres to gain complete normalcy in number of footfalls and pilgrims arriving and occupying space in boarding and lodgings that surround the shrines.
Also read: 2021: The tug o’ war between pandemic, natural calamities and Hope
Major problems that the tourist shrines face in the country is the uncertainty prevailing owing to fear of a third wave of the pandemic being round the corner. The uncertainty offers no scope for a safe planning and forecasting mode to be operational in anticipation. The Siddhi Vinayak temple trust in Mumbai too was a bit apprehensive of prospects of fluctuations in the collections the temple earns in form of donations from devotees.
In short, the informal sectors of the Indian economy that account for more than 50% revenues and 90% in terms of employment are faced with a veil of anxiety that may loom for longer than expected owing to new variants of the Covid19 virus threatening to cause fresh disruptions in the restoration of normalcy.
On the technology front, the telecom sector looks promising with 5G spectrum likely to be in place by mid 2022 with three Indian players already in the fray, namely Reliance, Airtel and Vodafone-Idea combine. It means better and faster internet connectivity and more facilities being available in the form of android apps that will make communication spectrum much simpler.
Besides, close on heels of the previous year’s space odysseys by Elon Musk and Richard Branson, India is planning its first unmanned spacecraft to visit Venus and also Chandrayan 3 is on the cards, keeping the ISRO scientists glued to their seats in anticipation of another successful launch.
While on the technology front, we as a country do have much to look forward to, but there is also concern about erratic weather patterns that get precipitated as a part of the climate change trail. Melting of glacial ice in the Himalayas is also a matter of concern which the Centre will do well to tackle problems of flooding, cyclonic storms and hurricanes at high wind speeds. In fact, the main challenge for the government to get India’s economy back on track is that of easing pressure on the businesses falling under the informal sector as well as striking a balance in handling natural calamities caused by global climate change.
While in 2021 our Olympics and Paralympics teams did India proud, it is left to our cricketers to strike form for the sporting ventures ahead this year.
