THE ECONOMICS OF SURVIVAL
To combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian government has imposed an unprecedented three-week national lockdown. While travel and tourism, aviation, hospitality and entertainment will be the worst-hit, sectors such as automotives, which had already been struggling, will see a further collapse. Over 300 million Indians, who are either casual labourers or work in the unorganised sector, will face employment challenges. Stock markets too have tanked—on March 23, the BSE Sensex suffered its worst-ever single-day fall, plunging 3,934 points to 25,981.24. INDIA TODAY spoke to economists and experts across industries to identify the areas of pain and the possible remedies. On March 19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the government had set up a task force to assess the pain in the economy and come up with a financial package.
On March 26, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a relief package of Rs 1.7 lakh crore to help the poor. The PM Garib Kalyan Yojana will essentially use direct cash transfers to ensure food security for those affected by the three-week shutdown. This includes an insurance scheme of Rs 50 lakh per person for frontline workers in the fight against COVID-19, an additional 5 kg of rice and 1 kg of dal free for three months for 800 million beneficiaries of the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, giving farmers under the PM Kisan scheme the first instalment of Rs 2,000 in the first week of April, benefitting about 86.9 million farmers, increasing MNREGA wages from Rs 182 to Rs 202 leading to a Rs 2,000 increase benefitting 50 million people, an additional ex gratia amount of Rs 1,000 for the next three months for the elderly and an ex gratia payment of Rs 500 per month for the next three months for 200 million women beneficiaries.
This is in addition to the measures announced on
