Ex-PM Manmohan Singh lists three steps to revive the economy.
Congress leader Manmohan Singh in an interview with BBC said that India’s economic slowdown is “a humanitarian crisis”, and criticizes the government’s shock and awe approach.
On Monday, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has stressed that a deep and prolonged economic slowdown in India was inevitable. Singh listed out three ways that the Narendra Modi-led NDA government should take to revive the economy, affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. Congress leader Manmohan Singh in an e-mail interaction with the BBC noted that the economic slowdown in India is “a humanitarian crisis” and that people have been inflicted tremendous pain by the government’s shock and awe approach. Singh admitted that announcing a nationwide lockdown was an inevitable choice, but criticized the suddenness and stringency of the lockdown by calling it thoughtless and insensitive.
Manmohan Singh lists out three steps for reviving the economy:
Singh also spelled out three steps the Modi government should take to restore economic normalcy, they were:-protect people’s livelihoods and ensure they have spending power through direct cash assistance, provide adequate capital for businesses through government-ack credit guarantee programmes, and instill institutional autonomy. Manmohan Singh stated that high-borrowing will increase India’s debt to GDP ratio, but if borrowing can save lives, livelihoods, borders, and can revive economic growth, then it is worth it. Singh insisted on focusing more on how the borrowing is utilized.
Manmohan Singh says an economic contraction in India is inevitable:
The former Finance Minister also underlined that the Indian economy was already struggling to grow before the global pandemic and stated that the GDP grew at 4.2% in 2019-20, its slowest pace in the decade. Manmohan Singh said that many economists have formed a consensus over an economic contraction in India in monetary terms which might occur for the first time in independent India.
