EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Five months from now, we will mark the second anniversary of the single most defining event of our time—the coronavirus pandemic. In the 19 months since the WHO declared the Covid-19 outbreak a global pandemic, the virus has killed nearly 5 million persons worldwide and caused a loss of about 4 trillion dollars in economic output. It is the most significant global disruptor since the Second World War, and we are not out of it yet.
There is much to worry about and, yet, much to be hopeful about. The triumph of the human spirit can be seen in the rapid pace with which we developed multiple vaccines to fight the virus and the speed with which we administered them.
The India Today Conclave 2020 was to have been held on March 13 and 14 last year, just two days after the WHO’s global pandemic alarm. We had to cancel it. Since then, we have seen the pandemic throwing the world economy into turmoil and disrupting global supply chains. India has seen the largest contraction of its economy in four decades. The geopolitical shift caused by the rise of an aggressive China has added to existing challenges like climate change.
The unprecedented quadrilateral convergence has caused a state of precariousness. A return to the normalcy of pre-pandemic life seems unlikely. What we could be looking at instead is what we chose as our conclave theme this year—‘A Better Normal’. We decided to look ahead rather than linger in retrospection. We had a galaxy of 78 speakers—the largest number we have had so far—telling us what this Better Normal could look like and describing the most significant challenges on the road ahead.
For one, the commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal pointed to the $197 billion in exports and the boom in the services sector to declare that an economic recovery is around the corner. With the
Sensex breaching the 60,000 mark recently, ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala says he’s bullish on the India growth story.
One of our biggest security-diplomatic challenges is the massive military mobilisation by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China on the fringes of eastern Ladakh over the past 17 months. As foreign minister S. Jaishankar told us, relations with Beijing can be normalised only if the PLA withdraws its troops: “They (China) need to stick with the (peace and tranquility) agreements and do the right things.”
Our panel of young climate change experts told us that climate change must be prioritised on a national and global scale right away. Because the longer we wait, the more irreversible the damage will be. This could be equally true of our response to the pandemic and the reprioritisation of public health. It’s not going to be an easy ask—for, as Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, told us, for climate change, there is no quick solution like inventing a vaccine. The cost of going green or reducing carbon emissions to zero is simply unacceptable even for the rich countries, not to mention middle-income countries like India. The road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari told us that one of India’s biggest problems right now is pollution, for which internal combustion engines need to be replaced by e-vehicles. We looked at new trends like drones, unicorns and cryptocurrencies, our new OTT stars and the makers of some of the most riveting online shows. Our only two individual Olympic gold medalists—Abhinav Bindra and Neeraj Chopra—described their contrasting approaches to competition.
In short, what we make of this brave new world as we strive for a Better Normal is predicated on our human capital. As Sir Malcolm Grant, founding chair of the National Health Service, England, told us: “It’s not about hospitals, it’s not about equipment, it’s not even about money, it’s about people and it’s the dedication of healthcare professionals that makes the huge difference between effective health systems and ineffective health systems.” Sir Grant was speaking about the response to the pandemic, but this could be equally true of almost any of the challenges facing us in the years ahead.