Future long term impact of Covid -19
The Corona Virus Pandamic is likely to have a long lasting impact not only in the economy but also the way we live life as we know it now. People may become a lot more apprehensive watching Let us see how the Corona virus is likely to effect our daily life as we know.
Activities which are likely to go Up:
Education: Education as we know it now is likely to change in the future. With the forced detention at home and learning at home. In the likely future home schooling could become more viable with different apps like coursera, byju and Khan Academy becoming more popular. It would soon not matter where you live or what prestigious school you went to, you could get good quality education from the best teachers through online education. Online education is becoming more and more popular across the world. The advent of online education and online content would enable even professors at Universities and colleges to devote more time to research rather than repeating same course materials.
Work from Home: The impact of Corona has forced many of us to use online cloud technology like google drive and communication apps like whatsapp, zoom and Skype to work from home. This would likely have a very long term impact in the way we work. Many of the IT/ ITES industry people will now find out how convinient working from home is and many choose to work from home in the future. Many of them could work from wherever they want, as long as there is good internet connectivity, yes, they can even work in Aizawl, Mizoram even if their head office is in Bangaluru. Meeting could be done over zoom and shared documents like google drive. This could lead to unexpected benefits even in government services in increased use of email and online services leading to more transparency and reduced manpower leading to quicker services.
Medical Care/ Geriatric care: Due to increased health awareness like hand washing, cleanliness and hygiene post Corona virus, life expectancy may increase which could lead to more old age homes and more geriatric care homes.
Activities which are likely to go down:
Traffic/ Transport: Due to the work from home culture, there could be less traffic, many of those working in office commute at least 2-3 hours a day commuting, this would save them a lot of time and would increase their productivity. Also increased use of Skype, Zoom or whatsapp would also reduce air travel and less use of cars.
Real Estate Price: Now a days, real estate traffic has really zoomed up and is not coming down. Real Estate prices could go down if more people choose to work from Home. They would not be saving a lot of money on high rental prices and commuting time by working near the Beach or Hill station of Aizawl or Shillong near their loved ones with money to spare for saving for their retirement.
Retail: Due to fear of proximity, increase of internet use and also lower rates due to economy of scale of online retailers, this could lead to increased use of online retailer and less use of Shopping malls. This could lead to rise of more online retailers and logistics companies.
Entertainment: Due to fear of proximity and also in part due to lack of Choices, online Platforms like Netflix , Youtube and Hotstar could become more popular forms of Entertainment. For a ticket cost of 2 for a Movie, you can binge watch on endless number of movies and serials. This could lead to reduced use of Movie halls.
Worship: Worship in Churches, Mosques or Temples could change post Covid-19, more people could start attending Church services online from Home rather than go to Church.
These are just some assumptions but what is more important is that we keep in touch with our loved ones and move on. While Work from Home or online education maybe good, it’s important that once things come to normal, we have an important role to play to provide employment to many who were in Covid-19 quarantine. If you are going to travel, use the Taxi, Uber, Auto or Ola, those drivers have been unemployed for a long time. Go to the restaurants and give a big tip to the waiters, some of them have been on unpaid leave for a long time, they need all the tip that you can give. And finally go watch a movie, you are providing employment not only to the actor but also the movie Industry and most importantly, go back to your normal routine and Thank God that you have survived a Pandemic which you will be able to tell your grandchildren.
