Coronavirus: India to enter fourth phase of lockdown as Modi unveils US$270 billion economic relief package

Modi says fourth phase of lockdown will be ‘completely different’ from the previous three, with new rules based on suggestions from states to be incorporated

Meanwhile, a huge relief package will keep India self-reliant and globally competitive, he says

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:55pm, 12 May 2020Updated: 3:34am, 13 May 2020

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced that the government will spend 20 trillion rupees (US$270 billion), on a coronavirus economic relief package designed to make the world’s second most populous nation more self reliant.

“The package’s main aim is to build a self-reliant India,” Modi said in a televised speech, adding that it will help the country compete globally.

“This economic package is for India’s self-reliant movement. It is for the cottage-, small- and medium-scale industries,” he said.

The finance minister will give further details of the package – which amounts to the equivalent of nearly 10 per cent of the country’s GDP – over the next day, Modi said.

India’s lockdown has driven many workers back to their hometowns in the countryside. Photo: AP

India entered its sixth week of a stringent nationwide lockdown on Tuesday, pushing an economy already enfeebled before the pandemic to the brink of collapse.

The lockdown that began March 25 sent an exodus of workers from its huge informal sector fleeing the cities to their ancestral homes in the countryside. Economists say unemployment reached 24.7 per cent this week.

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