Goan Economy: Warranting a Welfare Oriented Approach

Goan economy too is taking its baby steps towards revival of the tourism, mining & industrial sectors. The fishing industry too has taken a hit while a sizeable expat population is still awaiting a return to their countries of livelihood. The seafarers too are awaiting a fillip.

Despite being the peak tourist season, we’re having less than 30% of the regular inflow of tourists. Foreign tourist footfalls are almost negligible & the regular chartered flow has failed to meet its mark. This has dashed the expectations of every stakeholder and will seriously affect the livelihoods of major portion of Goan population.

The above circumstances cannot be expected to do an immediate U-turn of growth as long as the pandemic effect remains strong. Even with the advent of a vaccine by late 2021, we cannot expect a full scale revival until 2022.

The Goan economy cannot be clubbed with that of the large state’s of India. The dependency factor on Covid is much more higher for the revival of tourism industry which is one of the main pillars of our economy. Hence the short term goal should be support & sustenance so that the industry is not rusted out.

Mining sector is yet to kickoff full swing while the manufacturing industry alongwith the small scale & cottage industry too has taken a serious hit thus detrimentally reducing a major source of income generation while laying off those dependent on this sector. Expectations of immediate revival will be unreasonable as its feasible only on a long term basis until which the situation necessitates the sustainability of people & infrastructure until a plausible normalcy falls in place.