Global wellness expert Deepak Chopra told CNBC that he was “devastated” and “broken” over the Covid-19 crisis that is currently gripping India and said the country could have dealt with the situation much better.

Chopra, who was born and raised in New Delhi before continuing his medical education in the United States, hopes lessons will be learned from this.

“I think India could have done better. I think, as usual, political ideologies and conflicts, as well as interest groups, have exacerbated the crisis,” he said.

“India could have done this much better and I hope you learned, we all learned a lesson from it because you know there is no way to stop Indians from going into the world and what is going on in India That’s going to happen elsewhere if you’re not careful, ”he added.

“A very big mistake”

Chopra told CNBC that he feels responsible “ultimately falling to influencers and politicians and leaders for making the rules. And it was a very big mistake, in my opinion, to keep the Kumbh Mela and all these religious gatherings for political ones only.” Purposes. “

India has seen a deadly second wave of the Covid-19 virus in the past few weeks. According to the Johns Hopkins University, the country has reported over 27.5 million Covid cases and nearly 326,000 deaths.

Deepak Chopra, co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing and founder of the Chopra Foundation.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Chopra is not alone and many have criticized lawmakers and vaccine suppliers in the country. Prime Minister Modi defended the government’s vaccination strategy, telling ministers in April that “those who are in the habit of politics (playing) allow it … I have received various allegations. We cannot stop those who do this to do.” We really want to serve humanity, which we will continue to do, “he said, the Times of India reported.

He also noted that an earlier peak of infections had been controlled this past September at a time when vaccines were not available and cases and mass tests were being tracked and followed.

Pandemic “worsened our mental well-being”

Chopra, a global leader in integrative medicine and meditation, spoke about the release of a new free 21-day meditation experience with multi-award-winning singer-songwriter, activist, and entrepreneur Alicia Keys.

The meditation “Activation of the Divine Feminine: The Path to Wholeness” published on ChopraMeditation.com during Mental Health Awareness Month aims to “restore wholeness and bring peace and healing”.

Chopra and Keys believe that in today’s world of male and female energy there is an imbalance, regardless of gender, that needs to be addressed.

“Healing is ultimately the return of the memory of wholeness, and when we are not balanced with both masculine and feminine energies within ourselves, that imbalance is reflected in what we see in the world,” said Chopra.

The wellness icon, who is also the founder of the Chopra Foundation, a nonprofit focused on the study of wellbeing and humanity, told CNBC that he believes mental stress is “the number one pandemic in the world” stay.

“There is something wrong with our humanity right now as we are not concerned with mental well-being and sanity,” he said.

“Everything from climate change to pandemics, mass migrations, environmental destruction, weapons kills to wars and terrorism is a result of psychological distress, stress, anger, hostility and fear. So we have to deal with it. This is an emergency.” he went on.

He said the global pandemic only “worsened” the situation.

“The global pandemic has worsened our spiritual well-being, deteriorated our economic well-being, and spawned some ugliness such as racism and bigotry and hatred and prejudice and conflict,” he said.

“All over the world it’s not just Republicans and Democrats, but Protestants and Catholics, Muslims and Jews and Arabs, and Israelis and Indians and Pakistanis. I mean, if you don’t believe this crazy, you are explaining your own madness,” he added added.

When asked what individuals can do to make a difference and what he thinks is the solution to all these global problems, Chopra said, “If you want to change the world, start with yourself.”

“”Perform an act of kindness today … When we perform all acts of love in action and reach critical mass, the world will be a different place, “he told CNBC.

– CNBC’s Holly Ellyatt contributed to this article.

Covid-19 vaccination campaign at a state health center during the Covid-19 emergency in Kolkata, India, May 3, 2021. Pfizer in talks with India about accelerated approval of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to an Indian media report.

Indranil Aditya | NurPhoto | Getty Images

India’s economy is likely to have improved in the three months that ended in March – but analysts have lowered growth expectations for the current quarter that ends in June.

It comes as India continues to battle a devastating second wave of the coronavirus outbreak.

The gross domestic product for the period January through March – India’s fourth fiscal quarter – is due Monday around noon GMT. India’s fiscal year starts in April and ends in March of next year.

Reuters reported that the economists surveyed have an average forecast of 1% year-over-year growth for the March quarter – an increase of 0.4% in the previous quarter. However, economists are less optimistic about the current quarter, which ends in June.

We need to reach critical vaccination levels in India, a level of immunization, to stabilize the outbreak – and that is critical to economic growth.

The median growth forecast for the three months between April and June is 21.6% – after an earlier estimate of 23%, Reuters reported. For the full 2022 financial year, the median forecast has fallen from an earlier estimate of 10.4% growth to an expansion of 9.8%.

India is the second worst infected country in the world after the US. More than 28 million cases and over 329,000 deaths have been reported.

The expected growth is a “cold consolation” for India

The forecast growth rate for the March quarter “will be cold consolation for India, which pulled back as the resurgence of COVID forced another wave of decline in activity,” wrote Lavanya Venkateswaran, an economist at Mizuho Bank, on a Monday note.

The real focus will be on how India manages to get its economy back on its feet in the second half of the calendar year after the expected setback in the current quarter, explained Venkateswaran.

She added that the scarring effects on the country’s informal economy and banking sector, which were already capital constrained and weighed down with sub-par assets, are of major concern.

Covid-19 cases in India began to rise in February and the daily infection rate accelerated and peaked in April and May The second wave forced most of Indian industrialized nations to take localized lockdown measures to slow the spread of the virus.

Although cases have hit record highs and the number reported on a daily basis falls below 200,000, there are concerns about their speedy transmission in rural India, where experts say the health infrastructure is ill-equipped to handle an increase in the number of patients.

Eyes on reviews

The second half of the year is crucial for India to improve its Covid-19 vaccination program Minimize the effects of a likely third wave of infections, economists have said.

“Ultimately, it comes down to vaccinations,” said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC, on Monday to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia”. “We need to reach critical levels of vaccination, immunization levels, in India to stabilize the outbreak – and that is critical to economic growth.”

Neumann added that based on trends seen over the past year, the Indian economy tends to recover quickly once virus cases peak. He expects the situation to improve by the end of the September quarter.

According to Kaushik Das, chief economist for India and South Asia at Deutsche Bank, a robust vaccination campaign can also reduce the risks associated with a possible downgrade in Indian country ratings, which has become a problem with investors.

Rating agencies have stated that they do not see any imminent changes in Indian country ratings yet. They expect the economic impact of the second wave to be limited to the June quarter, and predict that it is unlikely to be as severe as last year when India imposed a month-long national lockdown.