Maharashtra is India’s richest State. It is the 3rd most established urbanized state in India. Maharashtra’s GDP is ₹ 28.78 lakh crore (2019-20). Economy of State of Maharashtra can be compared with countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan because the GDP of Maharashtra and the economy of Maharashtra is more than these two countries. Maharashtra is considered the financial capital of India with the headquarters of almost all major banks, financial institutions, insurance companies and mutual funds being based in the city. With population of 120 million (12 Crore), Maharashtra has about 9% of India’s population and about 22% of total cases reported in India.

While schools are set to reopen in a limited way from next week in India, State of Maharashtra School Education Minister has announced that schools will not reopen before Diwali, as the Coronavirus cases continue to rise in the state.  State Higher and Technical Education Minister UdaySamant also said his department does not intend to reopen colleges until the COVID-19 situation is under control. 

Maharashtra on Sunday, reported 10,792 new Covid cases taking the total number of active cases to 2.21 lakhs. So far the Maharshtra is worst performing State in India with about 22% of total cases reported in India. 730 case fatalities have been reported in the past 24 hours. Of these, nearly 80% are concentrated in ten States/UT. More than 25% of new fatalities reported are from Maharashtra (187 deaths). When it comes to responding to the Corona virus of Wuhan, Maharashtra seems to be unable to lagging far behind the poorest States of India, the ubiquitous Bihar. Let us see some parameters.

Test per million

The average test rate per million in India stands at 64 thousand tests. Maharashtra after making efforts for several months now has about 500 labs and is testing about 61 thousand samples at present. Imagine what it must have been doing earlier. Uttar Pradesh, the most populous State in India with 22 crore population has TPM of 57 thousand and Bihar, the most backward and least developed State has 71 thousand TPM.

Test Positivity Rate (TPR):

As per WHO, the tests per million have to be increased till the test positivity rate falls below 8%. India at present has TPR of 6.5%. Uttar Pradesh has TPR of 3.6% while Bihar has TPR of 3.2%. Imagine how far behind the Maharashtra would be?

The TPR of Maharashtra is at whopping 19.94%

Death in Maharashtra:

Maharashtra with just 9% of population of Inida has contributed 41% of fatalities in India. Worse part is that it could have been worst. Overall rate of death in India is 1.53% but Mharashtra has death rate of 2.67% which is third worst. Gujarat with 6 Crore population has death rate of 2.37% and Punjab with half or 3 Crore population has death rate of 3.1%

Infection in Government:

Maharashtra has 33 Cabinet Ministers out of which 11 have been infected. Besides 2 other non-cabinet rank ministers have also been infected, so far.

Silver lines:

While there is so much wrong with the State of Maharashtra, there are few silver lines in the cloud.

Maharashtra also contributes the maximum recoveries with more than 15,000 single day recoveries. Maharashtra is home to Asia’s largest Slum area which is shown in every movie where Mumbai is to be shown by Hollywood. I will visit it some day to see in person. It is the most dense locality. With very timely and methodical action, the infection has been brought under control in Dharavi slums. Had it not been done, the number of deaths could be astronomical.

Mumbai is faring slightly better than rest of Maharashtra but the Government has to pull it’s socks and show that it can deal with the crises. After more than 200 days, no excuse is acceptable.