The Finance Ministry on Tuesday said that the mega vaccination drive against Covid-19 is supporting the economic recovery process, as it pinned hopes of a robust comeback in the worst affected-services sector. It also underlined that the estimated contraction of output to 7.7 per cent of growth domestic product (GDP) in FY21 is much smaller than originally apprehended. It further said that India has been able to avoid the second wave of the pandemic and limit the fatality rate to one of the lowest globally. The finance ministry’s Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) in its Economic Review for January said, “The initial stringent lockdown was critical to saving lives and the V-shaped economic recovery. The continuous drop in daily cases and fatalities bespeak India’s escape from a Sisyphus fate of back and-forth policy responses, enabling continual unlocking of the economy. Starting July, a resilient V-shaped recovery is underway, as demonstrated by the recovery in GDP growth in Q2 after the sharp decline in Q1 and a sustained resurgence in high frequency indicators. The V-shaped economic recovery is supported by the initiation of a mega vaccination drive with hopes of a robust recovery in the services sector."