Economics & Statistics behind India showing the spirit to allow the sale of alcohol amidst lockdown.
Is state’s revenue the only thing to consider behind the decision?
A third of the Indian drinker falls within hazardous category. No matter what the price, the habitual drinker will buy his drink. For marginalised class that price encompasses much more than what he pays as MRP. His consumption volume never shrinks, what shrinks is the quantity of food on his children’s plate. And, we are talking immunity to fight crisis.
As India transitioned from one lockdown phase to another amidst the Covid-19 crisis, it seemed the priority all of a sudden shifted from the health & survival of the marginalised class to the sheer pleasure of intoxication.
Is the move to allow liquor sale in the midst of the lockdown only about the state’s revenue? The answer is “Yes” and “No” both.
The challenge at hand is two folds:
- Whether to manage the pandemic and health of the nation, or
- to manage the drop in economy due to the lockdown
This is a new India and it needs to fix some of the fundamental flaws. The flaw isn’t in states depending on alcohol for revenue but, in having weak revenue model. Our states are yet to learn the art of leveraging existing strengths than copying same models. Copying won’t work in the best interest of the nation.
There is more to the story than what meets the naked eyes. Request a copy of this report to uncover the complete story.