NITI Aayog Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Kant on Saturday said that the coronavirus pandemic is the “biggest disruption” that the world will ever see and will lead to permanent changes in the nature of work.

“We are in the midst of the biggest disruption that we will ever see in the world,” Kant said while hosting a video conference on the impact of Covid-19 on workplaces. “We are passing through very turbulent times. The nature of work is changing.”

Kant added that the supply chain will be severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic. “The supply chains will get massively disrupted,” he said. “We are also in the midst of industrial revolutions 4.0.”

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World Bank’s India director Junaid Ahmad, chairman of Hero Enterprise Sunil Munjal, and The National Association of Software and Service Companies President Debjani Ghosh were among the participants in Kant’s video conference.

Ahmad said the coronavirus pandemic will permanently alter the economy and organisations work. “I see a very different type of social protection system, I see a different type of health system,” he said. “I see fundamental shifts in the way we work, but see these as parts of the changes that have been happening.” He added that world will not go back to the way it was but will instead adapt to new realities.

Ghosh said that the pandemic offers an opportunity to reinvent business. “Every crisis throws up a good challenge,” she said. “If we don’t use this opportunity to drive those radical changes, it’s our loss,” she added. “We must completely reinvent our business models.” Munjal said that the nature of jobs will completely change due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown measures imposed to control its spread have brought the global economy to a standstill. The International Monetary Fund has warned that the pandemic is likely to trigger the worst global economic growth fallout since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The organisation has also downgraded its growth projections for affected nations.

India has extended the nationwide lockdown to slow down the spread of Covid-19 till May 3, allowing only the operation of essential services. The total number of Covid-19 cases in India has gone up to 15,712 and 507 people have died, the Ministry of Health said on Sunday morning. So far, the coronavirus has hit at least 185 countries, infecting more than 23 lakh people and killing 1.6 lakh.

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Also read:

  1. Covid-19: IMF warns of worst economic fallout since Great Depression
  2. Covid-19: IMF lowers India’s GDP growth projection to 1.9%, also forecasts global recession