COVID-19 and Disaster Management: State Capacity and Federal Responses in India

Covid-19 has been the biggest test of political will and State capacity in recent times.  Being the first-of-its kind biological disaster, it created a bewildering situation for governments across the world. Given the severity of its impact and unpredictability of its prevalence, a definite strategy to contain the infection was difficult to frame. The only wayout was to pursue the preventive drive aggressively with active intervention of the government. In India, the timely intervention of State and Central governments did help in flattening the curve and achieving high recovery rates. But it was not easy to keep pace with the rising cases. Subsequently, India had the third highest number of Covid-19 cases in the world after the USA and Brazil. State capacity was tested at every stage. The paper delves into the patterns of State intervention in combating the pandemic. There is a separate discussion on the Kerala model in which the special character of its decentralised execution under the overall planning and supervision by the State leadership is highlighted. In the end, an account of federal response in dealing with the crisis is given to understand the evolving Centre-State relations in the context of Covid-19. 

Keywords:
Covid-19, Pandemic, Disaster Management, NDMA