With the Omicron wave rising, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), located at Udyog Bhawan in the national capital, has revamped its monitoring and control room to ensure smooth delivery of “essential” goods and services. , as it did during the second wave, facilitates seamless movement of essential commodities across the country. This is better than the chaos of last summer, when governments in the states and at the Center issued hundreds of rules and notifications – many of which were conflicting, with sector-level implementing officials struggling to interpret them, slowing the movement of goods comes – controlling what is necessary and what is not. But it is far from ideal.
Governments are no good at predictive markets. Printer ink cartridges, paper and stationery may seem unnecessary to executives but can be the key to one’s livelihood. Bureaucrats can decide whether elective surgeries or haircuts are postponed, but such services can make a difference to people’s levels of comfort and well-being.
Governments go beyond the limits of their ability and capability when they seek to control life by assuming that bureaucrats can know what is necessary to make a living and do business. One lesson of the pandemic, especially the red tape and delays seen in immunizing large populations globally, is that the incompetence of bureaucrats and politicians can blunt even the ingenuity of science. What exactly is non-essential? daily wage? Comforting loved ones who are grieving alone?
The essential-redundant distinctions are questionable and the bureaucrats trying to define these categories betray a dangerously narrow understanding of what it takes to sustain a life and a livelihood. By dividing existence into essential and non-essential, governments open themselves up to scrutiny of motives. Because it is natural that citizens would ask why mass gatherings are acceptable for election rallies or religious gatherings while classroom instruction in schools and colleges is not.
When it comes to business, the bulk of sales fall in the non-essential category. If e-commerce companies are able to deliver a good or service at the doorstep, why should the bureaucrats try to curb that? Last year, offline, physical stores saw growing e-commerce as a threat that could drive them out of business. But resistance from those quarters is likely to subside, with mom-and-pop stores tying up with e-commerce giants, growing their business, reducing the time and distance required for delivery.
This time last year most of us were counting down the weeks for vaccinations and saying goodbye to the pandemic forever. A year later, even the double-vaccinations are exactly where they were: trying to live with lost independence and uncertainty. When policymakers calculate the costs and benefits of their decisions, do they ask themselves, what is the value of something to a person in grief or stress? All the time, but especially during the volatile experience of the coming pandemic, we can do this with less intrusive governments.
Udyog Bhawan would do well to facilitate the movement of deliverable goods and services, without categorizing them on the lines of essential and unnecessary.
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