The Impact of COVID-19 Mobility Restrictions in India: Comparing State and Central responses

Indian central and state governments have imposed restrictions on human mobility to slow the spread of COVID-19. Based on state government directives and mobility data from Google, we find that similar restrictions did not lead to equal reductions in mobility across states before the national lockdown. Maharashtra’s restrictions were the most effective in reducing mobility by a large margin. The national lockdown had a larger and more uniform effect for most states.