Coronavirus latest: Modi announces US$270 billion economic relief package; Putin’s spokesman contracts Covid-19

Indian government to spend the equivalent of nearly 10 per cent of the country’s GDP on a relief package

Kremlin spokesman hospitalised for Covid-19 as Putin ends Russia’s nationwide quarantine; US virus expert Fauci to testify to Congress

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A man stands in front of a poster of Indian PM Narendra Modi. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 2:47am, 12 May 2020Updated: 11:42pm, 12 May 2020

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced a US$270 billion economic relief package to boost flagging growth as the country grapples with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and weeks-long lockdown.

“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. “It is for the cottage-, small- and medium-scale industries.”

The package – worth about 10 per cent of India’s GDP – came as the country was set to mark its 50th day in lockdown as the number of virus cases topped 70,000 with 2,200 deaths.

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

In Russia, the government began to gradually ease lockdown rules, even after reporting more than 10,000 new cases of the novel coronavirus every day for over a week. It is now the country with the world’s second-highest number of coronavirus infections, with 232,243 cases.

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