Make reforms work

Govt has to find a way to remove the stumbling blocks

After the announcement of a Rs 20-trillion economic package by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman last week outlined a series of measures to support the economy. Apart from providing liquidity support to various sectors of the economy with a minimal fiscal outgo, the focus was on reforms. However, many of the policy measures were either a reiteration of earlier announcements or follow-ups to those that did not work as desired. For instance, the Rs 90,000-crore liquidity support for power distribution companies (discoms) is a direct result of the failure of the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana. The