Asked if India were paying for such complacency, Dr Banerjee said: ‘‘While we could have said something like this in January, such optimism even in the first week of March was misplaced. By that time, we knew that cases were rising at an alarming rate in Maharashtra.’’

Late last month, the Chief Justice of Madras High Court had created quite a stir during an off-the-cuff remark when he put the blame squarely on the Election Commission of India for allowing election rallies during the Assembly elections in five states of West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. The rallies, especially in West Bengal, saw huge attendance across party lines and absolute disregard for social distancing norms - a factor which is now being held accountable for the recent spike in cases.

The decorated economist, who jointly won the Nobel with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer in 2019 “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty,” felt that crowds at the elections could be just one of the reasons. ‘‘Well, states like Maharashtra, Karnataka or Delhi had no elections. How do you explain the spike in cases there?’’ Banerjee asked.

Is another round of strict lockdown by the Union government the way forward? ‘‘See, lockdowns cannot be for a period of three or six months...it can be at best for three weeks. It can depend from state to state based on certain standards set by the central government in terms of population, the rate of positivity etc. Should that happen, then you have to hand poor people money so that they are not starving or try to move back to their native places - thereby spreading the infection,’’ he added.