Last Updated on 09/12/2020 by Drashti
While most countries are trying their level best to save the lives of thousands of their residents and simultaneously balancing the economy of the country during this pandemic by making sure that the country doesn’t suffer from significant economic damage; some countries are busy utilising this time in portraying other countries economy down by showcasing old Covid data through well-known publishing houses.
The recent article by the Wall Street Journal, titled “India’s GDP Shrinks as Covid-19 Keeps Stranglehold on Economy” has been catching the eyes of a lot of people in India and abroad.
The title of the article is not only misleading but so is the content of the article. The article contains misleading videos with old data, which isn’t relevant now. The article was published on November 27, but the content of the article presents the data of coronavirus cases only till September when the number of cases and deaths were high.
The data projected doesn’t take into account the month of November, wherein the number of recovered patients have increased along with the decrease in Covid cases
Given below is the latest data as compared to the outdated data presented by Wall Street Journal.
Given below is the data presented by the Wall Street Journal :
The Actual data is presented below:
The Wall Street Journal further requires premium access to read the complete article, which leaves many of the unsubscribed users with incomplete information. The saying by Thomas B. Macaulay, “Half knowledge is worse than ignorance”, couldn’t have been any more relevant here. People believing in false and outdated information, that is published by the Wall Street Journal can lead to a lot of chaos amongst people.
As if all this wasn’t enough already, the article is being promoted by paying money to twitter as an Advertisement as well.
It doesn’t take a lot of efforts and time to dig up the latest data as it is already laid out everywhere from apps to the websites of several reliable sources like WHO as well, which promotes the spread of correct information so that people don’t consume disinformation through unreliable sources.
#IndiaFightsCorona is the Official Government of India account which keeps updating people on #COVID19 through the help of @MIB_India.
According to the account, in India, Case Per Million at 7,031 is amongst the lowest in the world and Case Positivity is continuously declining and cumulatively stands at 6.5%.
Given below is an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal Article:
“The latest GDP data marked the first time in decades that the country’s growth has contracted for two consecutive quarters. Private consumption, which makes up more than half of the country’s GDP, fell 11% during the quarter from a year earlier. Government spending, which made up about 11% of GDP during the period, was down 22%. Capital expenditures fell 7%.” the article states.
“By contrast, in the most recent quarter, the U.S. economy contracted 2.9% year-over-year, while China’s economy grew 4.9%, according to the latest tally from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development” it further reads.
Apparently, they are presenting India as a losing economy, even though the people aren’t buying this.
But India is firm at its roots and continues to thrive in this pandemic. The government of India and the health ministry are trying their level best to help the Residents of India and other countries as well.
“At a time when some countries are busy taking undue advantage of COVID-19 to spread divisive disinformation or to enhance even more their support to terrorism or to adopt aggressive policies, India’s answer has been to immediately come to the support of countries vulnerable to the pandemic, rush urgently needed medical supplies, strengthen national health capacities and mitigate the diverse socio-economic impact of this crisis,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador TS Tirumurti said while addressing the 3rd anniversary of the India-UN Development Partnership Fund at India’s Permanent Mission to the UN.
