“Briefly, if you look at the rural market, our economy was in deep trouble even before the pandemic and disruption. The crises majorly were not on the supply side or because of the supply constraint, but due to lack of demand, particularly in the rural economy. As I see it, the reason behind it is that the major portion of rural India is still suffering from falling real wages, inflation, high unemployment, and a rise in inequality. All these reasons are leading to a slowdown. So it’s more demand driven,” says Neeraj Pokhariyal, senior consultant, Microsave Consulting, a consultancy company.