Pandemic Disruptions and Odisha’s Lessons in Governance

With only 0.55 beds available for every 1,000 people, India’s public health system struggled to cope with the COVID-19 crisis, even while out-of-pocket expenditure pushed millions back into poverty leading to economic, educational, and equity distress. Also, with the increase in the use of technology, concerns about data privacy and citizens’ right to privacy emerged. Tensions between the State and Centre over the allocation of funds built up as budgetary resources started dwindling for both. Children becoming orphans and girls vulnerable to child marriages and trafficking was another disturbing fallout. Amidst these multifarious challenges in several sectors, there were States like Odisha which stood out, by adopting the famed 5T framework of governance which forms the overacting policy approach in what has now gained prominence as the Odisha Model of growth and development. Odisha Government’s handling of the covid crisis riding on its earlier experience in handling natural disasters has been applauded nationally as well as globally. Pandemic Disruptions and Odisha’s Lessons in Governance compiles various essays that the author wrote during the pandemic years outlining India’s and Odisha’s fight against COVID and all the concomitant unintended consequences while also commenting on how either policy planning or implementation could possibly have been better, setting out a roadmap for the future. Several of these policy prescriptions were later adopted by the Government.