Business Bureau :
Council We strongly feels that profiteering in such times of distress and health emergency is the last thing any businessman should do
As we head towards the end of the business calendar year, we are unfortunately being confronted by a global public health emergency whose nature, impact and cure are not even remotely known, as yet. Till now, India has not experienced a major outbreak of corona cases but complacency and callousness would put us in danger. The biggest problem many countries are currently facing with respect to the coronavirus is its exponential growth.
Since SARS-CoV-2 is a new type of coronavirus, there is no herd immunity, which means that everybody is susceptible to infection and the virus is likely to spread exponentially. China witnessed in February what Europe, and the United States are experiencing today. Countries such as Italy, Spain, France and Germany are seeing the number of cases double every three to four days, and the US is witnessing a faster growth than that. The key is to slowdown the rate of growth. It’s a peculiar problem while dealing with exponential growth - what appears to start off relatively slow, quickly snowballs and soon becomes unmanageable. A populous country like ours just can’t afford to take things lightly. Social distancing is the only prescribed way forward. Social distancing, in no way, means ‘social boycott’ of persons with infection or of those undergoing ‘quarantine’. We strongly feels that profiteering in such times of distress and health emergency is the last thing any businessman should do.
Street vendors, small businesses, self-employed professionals, daily wage earners, domestic helps, informal sector, construction labourers, shop owners, SMEs are being badly hit by the lockdown imposed and adopted due to corona. The services like health, administration, logistics, e-commerce, essential goods and transport are exempt from the lockdown and these are the ones which need our empathy, support, appreciation and gratitude the most. They are the front-line warriors and least we can give them is empathy, a glass of water, a plate of food, a pack of masks and sanitiser bottles and a smiling face. The corona virus will eventually be defeated, its scare would also subside in the weeks to come but it would unarguably leave behind a massive economic slowdown, a global recession.
It is currently beyond everyone’s apprehension to calculate the possible economic losses. As our country and majority of the world moves towards isolation and adopts or imposes social distancing and lockdown, we just pray the gloomy beginning of the year and the decade clears out, very soon, with important and lasting learnings for us. The adverse times would undoubtedly offer innumerable opportunities for growth. We appeal to all the stakeholders, business and industry to stand together, operate ethically and legally for larger interest of the community , informs a press release issued by Vidarbha Economic Development Council.