A pandemic report card

It has now been exactly four months since the nationwide lockdown was first imposed. In this period, the number of cases has continued to grow, particularly sharply in recent weeks and days. There are now about 1.3 million positive cases recorded, though given India’s testing rates, the true number is perhaps several multiples of that. In a very short time, there will be about 500,000 active cases, with 150,000 of those in Maharashtra alone.

This seems an apposite moment, therefore, to take a step back and consider how the Union government has performed when faced with this unprecedented crisis. Let’s consider