During a session with Indian business leaders and economists, Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz called India the “poster child of what not to do”.

Stiglitz criticised how India implemented the lockdown, saying the ensuing migrant crisis exacerbated the pandemic in the country and said the country had not done well in handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It (India) picked up one idea that is important. Lockdown. Did not think about what it means in a poor country. How are people going to live, large number of people moving across the country. One could not have imagined anything worse for spreading the disease,” he said.

Further he stated that during lockdown and in his Independence Day speech, PM Narendra Modi had made a pitch for self reliance, saying it was the need of the hour.

Stiglitz said such a move was out of touch with the 21st century and is something one would expect from authoritarian regimes, according to The BusinessLine.