India's Covid battle exposes GDP growth as an ineffective measure of economic success Shaz Memon is founder of Digimax Dental and Wells on Wheels ndia's prolonged and devastating wave of Covid-19 infections has gripped cities and overwhelmed urban health resources, but it has also reached deep into rural India, where the true extent of devastation is unknown because of the lack of widespread testing or reliable data. (Photo by Rebecca Conway/Getty Images) India is in the throws of a double-headed infrastructure threat: a medical breakdown and a drastic water shortage. The latter has been obscured and worsened by the focus on the former.