The author of this edited volume, Sanjaya Baru correctly highlights uncertainty as the key problem caused by COVID-19. But the eminent economists who have contributed to this volume have largely ignored it. Most of them have analysed the situation as it existed sometime in the later part of 2020. But the situation has been overtaken by the onset of the ferocious second wave starting mid-February. The articles may be taken as presenting the thinking in key circles at that time.
The articles are split up into six sections. The first consisting of seven articles is titled ‘Managing Growth and Uncertainty’. This set of articles focus largely on the macroeconomic aspects but only one of them looks at uncertainty. The second section consists of three articles and is titled ‘The Fiscal Dimension’. This section looks mostly at the important issue of federalism but does not really focus on the fiscal challenges of a lockdown and the impact on the budgets of the Centre and the States or at the level of deficit that can be sustained in an extreme crisis that the country faced.