Stimulus package: No fiscal excesses, but growth prospects remain dim

In five press briefings held in as many days, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced several measures to provide support to individuals and the economy, which have been hit severely by successive nationwide lockdowns to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that his govt would provide a massive Rs 20-trillion economic stimulus package to help make India ‘atma-nirbhar’ or self-reliant.

In her five-tranche package, the finance minister covered measures and reforms for the MSME sector, agriculture & allied sector, the Essential Commodities Act, migrant workers, labour codes, coal and mining, power distribution, defence production, employment generation, civil aviation, PSU rationalisation, insolvency and bankruptcy code, among other things.

Are these measures going to be enough to tide over the crisis facing the economy at present? What will be their short-term and long-term impact? Financially speaking, what will all this mean for the government?

Let’s take a Deep Dive with AKB to understand these and more.