How damaging will be the new restrictions be?

With the economic damage from last year’s lockdown still fresh in the memory, there appears to be little appetite for a return to extreme measures to curb the ongoing outbreak. But given the very worrying virus trajectory and the greater strain that healthcare across India is coming under, there is every chance that local authorities feel they need to do much more. The current set of restrictions may therefore inadvertently end up being very damaging precisely because they are not strict enough.