SANJAY THAPA JEET
Taking the Covid 19 bull by its horns, PM Modis announcement of Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package is indeed a big boost to the economy affected by the lockdown. It is at par with those announced by many developed world like France,, Spain, Italy UK, US Germany who have pitched over 10 per cent of their GDP in covid relief. But it will have to be seen how its implemented.
Stressing largely to push India selfreliant through the Atmanirbhar Bharat yojana, the package aims at taking the opportunity to promote Make in India. It will have to be seen how the Modi govt implements it. In this direction FM Nirmala Sitaraman dedicated its first tranche of assistance to majorly to SMSEs extending Rs 3 lakh crore non collateral loans with interest free moratorium of a year. Apart from addressing the issue of migrant labourers. The Rs 3 lakh croreis expected to help over 45 lakh SMSEs units which have been hit hard by covid 19 lockdown in last 45 days. Infusion of liquidity in NBFCs, HFCs, SHGs, a Rs 30000 crore help has been announced for them as they in turn help SMSEs. She also changed the definition of SMSEs to remove the block of limiting their growth. This is apart from the Rs 1.7 lakh crore package announced by the FM before the covid crisis erupted.
Today she addressed the issue of migrant workers. Providing additional free ration for next two months and providing one nation one ration card.But it comes at a time when Modi is restating the industry. With lakhs of migrant labourers having left the industry, it will now indeed be difficult to restart the plants and factories. What was expected was a direct monetary help to them. With the start of the rabi harvest, crops in Punjab, Maharastra are lying idle with the lack of labourers. The provision of Railways to evict labourers has also come at a wrong time. As per World Bank as many as 4 crore labourers are without jobs or have migarated. Out of this almost 15 lakh are from UP and 28 lakh from Bihar. The total unemployment rate has spiraled to 25 per cent till March after lockdown. About 14 crore job losses have taken place till April. Even as the Stimulus package comes the 45 day lockdown has pushed the economy into a unfathomable tailspin. How long will it take to come out of it is anybody’s guess.!
