Shillong, May 22 -- The fourth phase of national lockdown will end only by May 31, 2020, yet there is no surety that this will be lifted, as the pandemic keeps on rising day by day in few pockets of the country. Whereas, one thing is sure that the economy of the country, which had hit the rock bottom last year is now finding it difficult to prevent the nation going into a recession in financial year 2020-2021, because of the nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19. A report by Axis Capital has forecast that the gross domestic product will decline by 1.7 percent, led mainly by a steep contraction in manufacturing, trade, transport and communication - the worst recession for the first time in 40 years.

Since the national lock...