Miscellaneous
In this and a companion episode of the Transforming India podcast, co-hosts Arvind Panagariya and Pravin Krishna offer a thorough discussion of India's response to Covid-19, till date. This episode covers measures with rupee figures attached to them and the companion episode will discuss economic reforms aimed at improving long-term efficiency and growth prospects of the economy. In the present episode, they divide the government's measures into two parts: Phase I measures announced following the Prime Minister's speech on March 24 and Phase 2 measures announced following his speech on May 12. They dissect the response in terms of welfare measures, ramping up health infrastructure and availability of credit to MSMEs, larger corporations and the self-employed, including vendors, both by the government as well as the RBI. They also touch upon the issue of migrant workers. The companion episode will be released soon.