Rant Alert ! My response will come off as ranty, because I am a bit annoyed.
India takes strong and well executed action on lockdown. People in the West continue to loiter in the streets. ( I see it here in Boston at least, one of US's hot spots).
West be like, "India's low death number is a mystery"
At this point, it almost sounds like the western media is mourning the lack of deaths in India. As though to say, "there is no way a "shithole country" can ever be well prepared for a pandemic. Hopefully India gets worse, so we can tend to our wounds by saying that at least it isn't as bad as it's in India."
When a lockdown works wonders in China or Korea -> "Swift response, responsible Govt. India does the same, and it's still a mystery.
Some points
* India has the world's most drastic lockdown in order. More stringent than China at their COVID peak.
* Indian public health is at the very least experienced, (I think competent as well, but opinions there may vary) with national epidemics.
* Indians know what mortality feels like. * More fact, Indians also know what national emergencies and curfews feels like. We have had a few in the last few decades, and some have been nearly as drastic.
* India relied strongly on ICMR (it's medical research body) over WHO or the US's recommendations. That included using funding to push a lockdown far earlier into the spread than other nations, consistently recommending masks and contact tracing. On the other hand, testing and ventilator recommendations were not taken and it has worked. The death rate of COVID patients on ventilators is 88%. It is less a life saving device and more an expensive pyre. India has also been smart about running really intelligent statistical tests instead of mass testing. They randomly tested people coming in reporting pneumonia symptoms, they tested randomly sampled population and closely tracked the death rate, instead of spending 100s of millions on testing everyone. (esp. when everyone is 1 billion people) Additionally if high rates of testing only serve to better provide recommendations on distancing, mask wear and lockdowns, then India has jumped to stringent action already, making high rates of testing rather meaningless. (2 week delayed death number spikes are far more reliable for longer term decision making such as when to restart the economy)
(also, even more controversial, it doesn't help that the Indian intellectual and political left (esp. the Luthiens Delhi crowd), despises the current government, and would rather evangelize and believe in its incompetence, ever get caught giving it credit where it is due. I say this as someone who would be considered a proper social democrat in the US and is not a fan of the current US or Indian Govt.)
Is it possible that there are other reasons for why India has low Covid-19 death rates ? -> Of course it is possible. But, the pigheaded quest of the western media to find an alternative "godsent" reason to keep believing that India has an incompetent public health infrastructure is honestly quite appalling.