Can the rich help?

Thanks to the second wave of Covid-19, India’s economic recovery process is stalled. What will spur growth again? The recovery cannot be investments-led because most enterprises are nursing excess capacities. It is also evident that the government is reluctant to spend its way out of the economic crunch. Can households bail out the Indian economy? Prima facie, it seems difficult because households have seen a fall in income and their expectation of a return to better times is very low. In April 2021, only 4.2 per cent of households said that their incomes were higher than a year ago and