Report on International Webinar on “COVID-19: Rebooting Economy”

Organised by The Department of Commerce (UG & PG) in collaboration with the IQAC

• Convenor : Dr. Kalapi Banerjee
  Organising Secretary : Devdip Mal
  Platform : Video-conferencing through Google meet
  Date: August 13th,2020, Thursday (4.00 pm to 6.00 pm)

Resource Persons:

• Prof. (Dr.) Debasish Sur, (Professor, Department of Commerce, University Of Burdwan, W.B. India)
• Prof.(Dr.) Amalendu Bhunia, (Professor, Department Of Commerce, University Of Kalyani, W.B. India)
• Dr. Santus Kumar Deb(Associate Professor, Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

An International Webinar on “COVID-19: Rebooting Economy was organised on August  13, 2020 (Thursday) from 4.00 pm to 6.00 pm by the Department of Commerce, UG and PG section of The Bhawanipur Education Society on an online platform. The faculty members of The Bhawanipur Education Society, faculty members of other colleges and research scholars participated in the webinar. There were speakers from universities of India and Bangladesh who were erudite academicians and had enlightened the esteemed audience regarding the current state of affairs of the economy and they expressed their views and thoughts as to how to overcome the difficulties in the present situation and reboot the economy.

Dr. Kalapi Banerjee, Convenor, started with an inspiring opening note followed by a melodious prayer song by Atreyee Ganguly. Paramita Chakravarty delivered a warm welcome speech, followed by the introduction of the guests by Dipannita Chatterjee

Watch the Webinar

The keynote speaker was Prof. (Dr.) Debasish Sur from the University of Burdwan. He gave an overview of the overall economic effect of lockdown and brought into light how the Indian economy entered into a de-growth stage as predicted by the different rating agencies at the beginning of the lockdown and it gets reflected in the increase in unemployment, how the MSME sectors which are the driving force for the economy have been affected because of lockdown and the large industries have already scaled down their operations and withheld the expansion programme in the next one year. The delivery by Prof. Sur has thrown light as to how the consumer spending has dipped significantly because of this pandemic and uncertainty in terms of life and livelihood.The plight of poor Public Distribution System in India has been one of the important points and how corruption has engulfed the system and the poorest of the poor are denied of these facilities have been brought into the discussion.

He has suggested two points for the recovery of the economy:-

1. By improving the PDS and eliminating the corruption in the Public Distribution system the plight of the lower strata of the Indian population’s hunger can be taken care of to some extent.
2. Prescription of Nobel Laureate Prof. Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee can be followed which has been done by the countries like Japan and USA, i.e., print the currency notes and distribute it among the people without considering about the issues of inflation at this trying times, as extra money in the system will increase consumption expenditure and will create a real sector growth, employment will shoot up and finally demand will be created which would in turn boost the economy.

The second speaker of the webinar was Prof. (Dr). Amalendu Bhunia from University of Kalyani, who presented on the topic “Covid-19 and Indian Economy: Impacts and Restores”.  The discussion was mainly on the impacts on the four sectors which are important contributors to the Gross Domestic Product of the Indian economy. These are:-

1. Impact on Green shoots: – Due to COVID19, there was an impact on the agricultural sector and thus the discussion highlighted that why the procurement for food-grains has increased just when the other sectors are seeing the negative growth.
2. Impact on poverty and hunger:-four wide indicators were used to highlight the impact of pandemic on the Indian population. The indicators compared the different states and a comparison has been made on these parameters.
3. Impact on jobs: – The discussion highlighted how there were massive losses of jobs in unorganised sectors and how it has in turn negatively affected the economy.
4. Impact on health care: – how public policy measures have resulted in significant operational disruption in the Indian private health care industries were also discussed in the webinar and the issues as to how private health care system continues to reel under the negative impact of COVID-19.

The suggestions made by Prof. (Dr). Bhuniya for reviving the economy are as follows:-

1. Massive losses of jobs should be tackled by the Government
2. More public health care facilities for the COVID-19 patients should be made available
3. Funds from central government to states and local bodies should be transferred at the earliest
4. Public spending should be increased as it will create demand and in turn will help to boost up the economy
5. Boost up the supply chain in India as it can be an opportunity for India since many countries may consider India as one of the alternatives as against China.

The third speaker in the webinar was Prof. (Dr). Santus Kumar Deb from University of Dhaka and his presentation was on Impact of “COVID-19: Pandemic on Tourism Business”. The focus of the discussion was on Impact of COVID-19 on global tourism business and comparison was made on how the tourism business of different continents got a severe blow due to the on-going pandemic.  The content of the delivery highlighted the three scenarios in respect of international tourism in2020. The tourism industry as faced the worst crisis since it began recording the tourism figures worldwide since 1950. The speech highlighted the impact of tourism on India and Bangladesh.

 

The recovery measures suggested by Prof. (Dr). Deb targeting the tourism sectors is:-

1. Focus on urban tourism for continuous development of tourism
2. Re-open tourism destination and recreational park in a limited way by maintaining health guideline and help tourism industry to survive
3. There should be Government incentive programs on loan repayment relaxation for small and medium enterprises including cash support to the employees of the tourism industry
4. Positive approach of electronic and print media regarding the tourism industry
5. Observation of behavioural pattern of tourists and offering a low price package for domestic tourists
6. After the pandemic, focus on cost cutting measures, e.g. having a video conference for conducting meetings, virtual tourism conference etc.
7. World tourism organisation may call international organisations, donor agencies, and political support for quick recovery of the industry.
8. In post viral world, people might be allowed to travelling with antibodies against COVID-19 freely with some sort of health assurance.

The Question and Answer session was conducted by Dr Dyuti Sinha, where queries of participants were addressed by the resource persons.

The session concluded with a Vote of Thanks by Devdip Mal, the organising secretary of the webinar.

There were around one-hundred and ten participants who were enlightened   by the valuable discourses in the webinar.