The second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has taken a vicious toll on India’s health, but the economic toll has also been heavy, though nothing like the carnage seen in the first quarter of the last fiscal year, when GDP growth crashed 23.9 per cent in response to the Centre’s no-notice lockdown. India’s GDP shrank 7.3 per cent in 2020-21 (in real terms adjusted for inflation). This is the worst performance of the Indian economy in any year since Independence.