Economic and Societal Transformation in Pandemic-trapped India: Emerging Challenges and Resilient Policy Prescriptions

This book acquaints the reader with the critical changes in India's economy and society amidst the unprecedented pandemic outbreak of COVID-19, which has been devastating by breaking all prior records of illness and fatality. The present crisis is shown to be more than an acute health hazard as it carries with it other threats associated with the economy, society, culture, psychology, and politics. The dynamic driving forces that have a significant bearing on life, space, and time are explored, providing a basis on which social scientists can understand the prevailing equations and project the unforeseen future to contribute to a policymaking mechanism. The Indian scenario presented here takes into account how the COVID-19-induced lockdown of transport services, closing of factories, and restrictions on mobilization have caused the economy to face a recession, affecting mostly the unorganized sector. Travel restrictions and quarantines affecting hundreds of millions of people have left Indian factories short of labour, causing havoc in the production system. Semi-skilled jobholders have lost their employment, and the country has witnessed the plight of large pools of migrant labourers returning on foot to their homelands hundreds of miles away with their families and belongings.

Contributors to this volume are drawn from diverse disciplines, displaying the solidarity of academic knowledge in a physically divided world. This common platform is provided to the practitioners of relevant academic disciplines under the umbrella of regional sciences - a forum for the exchange of ideas that may be effective in the sustainable management of the crisis and a way forward after it is mitigated. Thought-provoking discussions regarding different facets of the crisis are relevant not only to the current times but also to being prepared for the unforeseen post-COVID economic and societal order.

Dr. Subrata Saha was awarded a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of North Bengal. Dr. Saha specializes in issues of fiscal policies and effects of Structural changes on fiscal relationships in Southeast Asian Countries and India. The area of research interest is Public Finance, health and education, and Time Series Econometrics. He is a member of the editorial board of UGC CARE listed journal ENSEMBLE and a life member of the Indian Econometric Society and Indian Economic Association. Dr. Saha is presently working as an Associate Professor of Economics at Raiganj University, West Bengal, India. He has supervised four M. Phil. and one Ph.D. and presently supervising four Ph.D. scholars at Raiganj University. He has contributed several research papers to National & International Journals and edited research volumes. Besides, he has authored two books to his credit. IRDP, India, has awarded him with the prestigious Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Lifetime Achievement National award in 2018 in recognition of his contribution to his research activities, and in 2021, World Education Congress has awarded him West Bengal Education Leadership Award 2021 toward promoting educational excellence.

Dr. Mukunda Mishra is an Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, and designated Vice Principal of Dr. Meghnad Saha College in West Bengal, India. The college is affiliated with the University of Gour Banga. Dr. Mishra completed his postgraduate studies in Geography and Environmental Management at Vidyasagar University (receiving top rank in both the B.Sc. and M.Sc. panels of merit) and held a Ph.D. in Geography from the same University. He was selected for the prestigious National Merit Scholarship by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. His research chiefly focuses on analyzing unequal human development, regional planning, and multi-criteria predictive model building. He has more than twelve years of hands-on experience in dealing with development issues at the ground level in various districts of eastern India. Dr. Mishra has in his credit to publish one monograph and three edited research volumes so far from the house of Springer-Nature. Dr. Mishra has more than thirty research articles and book chapters published in the journals and books of international repute. Besides serving as the reviewer of several reputed journals published by Springer-Nature and Elsevier Inc., he is continuing as the Managing and Publishing Editor of Ensemble, a UGC-CARE (India) enlisted journal of repute, since its inception to date.

Professor Anil Bhuimali, M.A. (Economics), Ph.D. (Economics), D.S.A, D.Litt., is presently the Vice-Chancellor of Raiganj University in West Bengal, India. Prior to this, he was designated as the Professor and Head of the Department of Economics, North Bengal University. Alongside, Prof. Bhuimali also had served as the Coordinator in the Centre for Differently-Abled Persons of North Bengal University; Coordinator of SAP-DRS-II and SAP-DRS-III in the Department of Economics of the same University. He has a long 34 years of teaching experience, of which 15 years as a full professor. He has, to his credit, more than 30 Years of research experience in the area of Microeconomics, Gender Economics, International Economics, Rural Economics, Dalit Studies, Gandhian Economics, Development Economics, IT Policies & Management. Prof. Bhuimali supervised 20 M.Phil. dissertations, 35 Ph.D. theses and one Post-Doctoral thesis under his supervision. He has published more than two hundred research articles and book chapters in reputed journals and 50 books. Prof. Bhuimali is a Member of the Research Board of Advisors, the American Biographical Institute, North Carolina, USA, and a Visiting Fellow at Kannur University, Kerala. He is the recipient of several prestigious awards like the Banga Ratna Award by the Government of West Bengal in 2016; Life Time Achievement Award by the Confederation of Indian Universities (CIU) in 2016; Paul Samuelson Royal Economist Award by South Asia Management Association in 2016; Ambedkar Social Service Award by Indian Academic Researchers' Association(IARA) in 2016; The Outstanding University Administrator and Academic Excellence Award 2017 by Society for Research Development, Kuala Lumpur and many more.