As India continues to combat the COVID-19 pandemic with “Made in India” vaccines, it is worth realizing the need to continue following safety protocols. Not just for yourself but for the survival of every individual.

The rise in cases has brought back worries about the future. How well will the cogs of this huge economy move towards recovery?

Last week, the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist, Gita Gopinath, said there is evidence of normalization of the Indian economy. (She added that the numbers preceded the current wave of the virus.) The IMF projected a strong growth of 12.5 per cent. The Reserve Bank of India’s governor, Shaktikanta Das, said the current year’s GDP growth forecast is being retained at 10.5 per cent.

But one must realize that this projection and forecast can come true only when the right efforts are put in the right direction. Our ways of doing business will have to adapt to the growing challenges and become more flexible. Our focus should be to prioritize immediate needs and solve them with the resources available.

The steps need to be taken surely, but steadily. This philosophy of “taking one day at a time” is well expressed in VFS customer Asmita Barman’s experience. Tucked amidst the greenery of West Tripura is the village of Ishanpur. Asmita is one of the residents of the quaint village. She started her journey with VFS over a year ago. From dawn to dusk, Asmita ekes a farmer’s living on a field next to her village. With the financial support from VFS, she got hold of high-yielding seeds of tomatoes. From the next village, she got agricultural supplements. With the resources ready, Asmita and her family plant the seeds. Once the produce was harvested, her father-in-law helped her with sales in the nearby markets.

Just when things were finally looking up, the Union government announced the lockdown towards the end of March 2020. Markets were closed, and people were told to stay indoors. Asmita’s dreams got trapped in the darkness of her small home. Although farmers were free to continue tending to their fields, sales slumped, and Asmita’s dreams of financial stability were pushed to the brink. She realized she would have to change her ways of doing business to cope with the challenge. When the first “unlock” was announced, Asmita travelled to the next village and invested in various seasonal vegetables.

Rays of hope started piercing the clouds of darkness. Her field threw up a good harvest of vegetables. Asmita was able to outperform her competitors in the market with a vegetable stall that resembled a rainbow assortment of vegetables.

Asmita harbours dreams of a good life for her three-year-old daughter. The toddler missed her first experience of nursery school because schools were shut. But Asmita is patiently waiting for her daughter’s school to reopen. Asmita had been unable to continue studies after high school because her family was poor. But the setback failed to quench her ambition to be an entrepreneur. Starting young, Asmita had learnt the lesson of embracing challenges and navigating her way through them.

The year 2020 was a test of that very lesson for all of us.

Asmita told the VFS executive her plans to expand with her family’s support and assistance from VFS. Now, the experienced and weathered entrepreneur was armed with insights of how to pitch her efforts in the right direction.