The Horizon of Curiosity: An Analysis of Research Scope During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction

The zoonotic disease of SARS-COV-2 sparked a pandemic all around curtailing and redefining the way human society has operated so far. There has been an observable phenomenon in all the micro, meso and macro domains ranging from the aspect of socio-cultural, political and economic. The explicit aspects of change that have been imposed by authoritative institutions and observed have been in varied forms such as the imposition of strict social distancing norms, mandatory quarantine protocols to be observed while travelling interstate and even internationally, mandatory usage of masks backed up by executive sanctions and imposition of curfew through various executive and legislative actions having a spatial dimension in the form of local, regional or national. There have been various subtle or implicit changes too which are to be defined in the field of socio-cultural, economic and financial domain much precisely. The characteristic implicit events are in the form of social ostracization, social relations redefined in terms of social events which highlight in a rudimentary form the features of in-group and out-group in terms of the social identity theory as popularized by Henri Tajfel et al. There has been the implicit micro as well as explicit macro challenges and transformation of the economic structure which can be analysed from a subaltern perspective as the problem of household management crisis plaguing the millions of households which have lost employment and their savings. The macro-structural problem has been in the form of noticeable changes made relevant through macro statements detailing the overall economic performance based on GDP, Per capita income, IIP, Inflation, Deflation etc. The inflows of investments in the form of FPI and FDI, the growth in exports and imports etc. are financial markets that signify how the overall economy is performing based on a microeconomic firm-level performance. The pandemic has certainly reversed the fortunes that were gained after the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and has sent shockwaves through national as well as international global economic arrangements which are delicate as proved by this crisis. There has been more than 1 million COVID-19 death all over the world with more than 1 lakh in Indian alone and there have been a cumulative 45 million global cases of COVID-19 all over the world with India having 10 million COVID-19 cases as of 23^rd January 2021(John Hopkins University of Medicine [JHUM], 2021). As far as economic indices are concerned as projected by IMF, there are bleak and depressing projections as far as regional and global economic progress is concerned as the world economy has shrunk 5.2% in 2020 and various major economies witnessing a negative GDP growth rate. The Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation have projected that the Indian economy has contracted by 23.9% in the April-June quarter of this fiscal year. This is the worst decline ever recorded since Indian started compiling GDP statistics every quarter in 1996. During the first quarter of 2020, private consumption- accounting for 59% of India’s GDP- declined by 27%, while investments by private businesses fell by 47%. India’s net exports turned positive due to sharp compression in imports (Singh, 2020). During the quarter, government spending increased by 16%, but it was not adequate to compensate for the decline suffered by other engines of growth. Except for agriculture, all the major sectors of the economy were badly hit. Significantly, labour-intensive sectors such as construction, real estate, retail trade, transport and manufacturing contracted sharply during this quarter. This all becomes quite negative when the rising NPAs of the already stressed Indian Banking sector is taken into account. There has been a significant decrease in the learning levels of the students especially in rural areas due to the forced closure of schools and the increased usage of digital media to impart knowledge. However, since there is a digital divide that is very acute in the rural areas of our country the learning levels have been very different and uneven according to the ASER Report conducted by NGO Pratham (Express, 2020). Therefore, the zoonotic disease of COVID-19 has for a year transformed and altered significant systematic structures that were in place in various sectors and realms ranging from socio-cultural, economic, political etc. It had a drastic and continues to have an intense effect on the livelihood of billions of human beings. This is so due to the profound multi-dimensional nature of the challenge that this pandemic of COVID-19 has brought upon the human beings and their fragile crafted social structure that is situated in the superstructure of the substructure consisting of the unpredictable natural world. This theoretical structuring in its essence is well exemplified by the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 which has been assuming a colossus shape with the linear progression of time.