Sachin Bansal takes the same line as Donald Trump and Elon Musk ⁠— let people work and “live with the virus”

• Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal said that it's time to open the economy.
• Bansal is of the opinion that we can’t make use of current opportunities if we continue to stay home.
• But he isn’t the only one, other industry leaders too have called for opening up of factories and industries.

US President Donald Trump famously said that the ‘cure can’t be worse than the problem’ and he received a lot of flak for it. Billionaire Elon Musk has taken the same line and faced the same fate. 8,000 miles away in India, an icon of Indian startups, Sachin Bansal is the latest to join that list of businessmen who can’t wait for the coronavirus lockdown to end.

The subject has been an open debate from drawing rooms to television channels⁠—- will hunger and poverty kill more people in the process containing COVID-19 coronavirus? The coronavirus pandemic has shut down economies and has put millions across the world out of work. Daily wage earners to members of the gig economy are among the worst hit.


And in light of this, Flipkart founder, and now CEO of fintech firm Navi Technologies, Sachin Bansal today took to Twitter to say that people who want to work should be allowed to. “We can't lock ourselves up for 2 years in homes waiting for a vaccine. India can't make use of the opportunities if our most productive people are locked in their homes. With COVID's growth slowing down it's time to open up the economy. We have to learn to live with the virus,” he wrote.


Earlier, Bansal had also tweeted that he wasn’t in the favour of work from home and that his productivity fell while working remotely.

Due to the lockdown and its consequent impact on the economy, there is a growing shortage of supply of goods in the market and the disruption has led to loss of revenue and, consequently, loss of jobs.

And Bansal is not the only one to ask for the economy to be reopened. The chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Limited, Naveen Jindal, in an article wrote, “We could surely get India to resume its manufacturing activities, under strict supervision, with a hygiene and health protocol in place. We could, thus, make up for the lost momentum.”

Globally too, Elon Musk faced a lot of flak for sending an email to employees saying that all those who are sick can stay home but he is going to continue going to work.

Trump started early

US President Donald Trump in a press conference had said that he wants the economy to reopen as soon as possible, within weeks. “We can’t have the cure be worse than the problem. We have to open our country because that causes problems that, in my opinion, could be far bigger problems,” Trump said on March 23. Since then, the US has piled on over 1 million COVID-19 cases with over 59,000 deaths.

That’s a number that could keep people on the fence from taking this side of the debate.

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