Liquidity focus continues

Govt provides immediate relief, but demand boosters missing

The second instalment of the government’s relief package to address the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic broadly stuck to the principles that governed the previous day’s instalment. New spending to boost demand, which many have been calling for, have been avoided in large part. The package extends a lot of existing schemes, with a clear focus on liquidity and credit availability for the vulnerable sections, especially migrant labourers, small and marginal farmers, and the poor. The most effective new intervention will obviously be the decision to make available free foodgrain and pulses for two months to even those migrant workers