 I was prompted to do this video after I heard the industrialist Mr. Rajeev Bajaj in conversation with the Congress leader Mr. Rahul Gandhi. Though I respect everybody's point of view and right to differ with regard to any public policy of the establishment. But here with due respect, I believe that the understanding of Mr. Bajaj and Mr. Gandhi regarding lockdown is somewhat misplaced, shallow and not well researched and thought through. Their arguments are not supported by any data or case studies. I want to make my arguments against theirs so keep watching this video ahead. According to the industrialist Mr. Rajeev Bajaj, the way India has been locked down is a draconian lockdown. This kind of lockdown he has not heard about from anywhere else and then he goes on to say that this lockdown has definitely decimated the Indian economy. And he says it has flattened the wrong curve that is not the infection curve but the GDP curve. Well, you know, even I had my doubts once about the lockdown theory, about the strategy of lockdown when I had seen Sweden not going in for lockdown. And at that time I did a video talk as well, you know, with regard to Sweden not going in for lockdown. But then, you know, I started doing my own comparative studies and analysis of different nations and their decision making. And here is what I found whereby I feel that India did absolutely right, absolutely right in going in for lockdown. Otherwise, we would have lost both enormously and massively the lives and the economy. Sweden chose for a more open approach in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic than other European countries, as we all know. But at present it has seen an upsurge in the number of deaths per capita, which is highest in Europe on a per capita basis and even above the United Kingdom. And all and above that Sweden is sitting at the brink of recession. In fact, one doctor there has actually accused the Swedish government of playing Russian roulette with the people of Sweden. And, you know, majority of Swedish experts are advocating lockdown. Deaths in Sweden have been higher than in neighbouring Scandinavian countries. So their model has gone wrong. Sweden did not impose lockdown during the pandemic believing that there will be less economic stress distress. But the most recent data demolishes that belief. Yes, Sweden, which is Scandinavia's biggest economy will shrink 7% this year. This is as per their own finance minister, Magdalena Anderson. That's the name of their finance minister. Sweden is not the only example. South Korea battled the COVID-19 pandemic with no lockdown and it is seeing significant job losses. No different than those countries which had enforced lockdown. Even Canada had not imposed lockdown absolutely all across. We all know that, you know, the fact. What happened to their economy? Do we know? Well, the research conducted by the economists of three leading universities from Seoul, from London and Washington has concluded that Canada's economy may not go back completely to normal. Normalcy, beg your pardon. So long, COVID-19 stays around. Most job losses, you know, have not occurred due to lockdown but from lack of hiring by businesses and a considerable volume, you know, of non-participation in the labor market. You know, people do not want to step out of their homes. They don't want to endanger their lives. They said economists have, you know, concluded the best way to relieve the labor market is to eradicate the virus. We cannot blame the economy having suffered because of a lockdown or no lockdown. It's not as simple as that. You know, you open up the lockdown and still people are not stepping out. Here I will also like to quote the same study which attempted to unravel the several distinct reasons in respect of unemployment. In the context of South Korea, it is cited, you know, and actually it's a notorious event that spiked the transmission rate in South Korea. You know, do you know that in mid-February, the country had only 30 COVID patients, only 30. But this person who eventually became 31st patient, you know, he attended one religious gathering and 10 days later, the country had more than 300 infections. You believe it? Almost entirely clustered around where he had attended that gathering. More than 60% of them were traced back to that single gathering. So this simple real-life example demonstrates that lockdown does arrest spread of the deadly virus. An economic recession is going to be a challenge either way. So it is better to save the lives, beg your pardon, than lose everything. If you have the life, you can revive and rebuild everything again. As they say, if money is gone, something is gone. But if health is gone, everything is gone. It's, you know, that phrase we have heard so many times. So that's the phrase of wisdom. Thank you. And, you know, see you next time with another topic of your interest. Hope you found this little video chat interesting and informative. Thank you.