After studying law I vectored towards journalism by accident and it's the only job I've done since. It's a job that has taken me on a private jet to Jaisalmer - where I wrote India's first feature on fractional ownership of business jets - to the badlands of west UP where India's sugar economy is inextricably now tied to politics. I'm a big fan of new business models and crafty entrepreneurs. Fortunately for me, there are plenty of those in Asia at the moment.
A key requirement of opening up economic activity in a country has been the ability to test and isolate people quickly for the Covid-19 virus. In this regard, India still lags all major economies except Japan. While India has increased the number of daily tests to 121,000 a day from 16,000 a day in mid-April, it has a long way to go. Still, Morgan Stanley is seeing initial signs of economic activity bottoming out. "Electricity demand in India is back to 2019 levels," it wrote in its Global High Frequency Economic Tracker.
With inadequate testing infrastructure, there is a risk of a rise in infections once people resume activity and travel. On May 28, Haryana and Karnataka reported their highest daily case count on account of air travel being opened up on May 25.
.jpg "Despite efforts, India lags in Covid-19 testing")
Image: Shutterstock 
