Important dialogue between former National President of the Indian National Congress, Rahul Gandhi and Nobel Prize winning economist Dr. Abhijeet Banerjee on the Corona epidemic, the future economic challenges due to it and how to deal with these economic challenges.

Rahul Gandhi: First of all, thank you very much for your time. You are very busy.

Dr. Banerjee: No ... no ... no more than you.

Rahul Gandhi: It doesn't seem like a little dream that everything is closed.

Dr. Banerjee: Yes, it is like a dream, but frightening, in fact it is such that nobody has any idea what is going to happen next?

Rahul Gandhi: You have children, so how does it feel to see them all?

Dr. Banerjee: My daughter is a bit upset. She wants to go with her friends. My son is young and he is happy that his parents are with him all the time. It is nothing wrong for him.

Rahul Gandhi: But there is also a complete lockdown. So they can't go out?

Dr. Banerjee: No, no, it is not, we can go out. There is no restriction on walking, there is no restriction on cycling and driving. It is just that we cannot go together, maybe it is banned.

Rahul Gandhi: Before I begin, I have an eagerness. You received the Nobel Prize. Did you expect Or did it happen suddenly?

Dr. Banerjee: It was very sudden. I think it is such a thing that if you keep thinking about it, then you sit with it in mind. And I am not a person with things in mind, especially for things that have no immediate effect on my life. I don't expect anything ... It was a surprise for me.

Rahul Gandhi: It was a great thing for India, you have made us proud.

Dr. Banerjee: Thank you ... Yes, that's a big deal. I am not saying that this is not a big deal, I believe that you sit with this in mind, but it is not that there is a process that everyone should understand. So, things happen.

Rahul Gandhi: So one of the important things that I want to discuss with you is the impact of Kovid and lockdown and the economic devastation of poor people. How do we see it? There has been a policy framework in India for some time, especially when we were in the UPA, we used to give poor people a chance, like MNREGA, right to food, etc ... and now this much work was done, bypassing it Is going because the epidemic has come in the middle and millions of people are falling into poverty. This is a big deal ... what to do about it?

Dr. Banerjee: I think it is two different things. In a way, I think that the real problem that immediately arises is that the good policies that the UPA had framed are inadequate at the moment. The government has adopted them in a way. It is not that there was any discriminatory disagreement on this. It is quite clear that UPA policies would work for whatever could have happened.

The difficult task is to do for those who are not part of these policies or schemes. And there are many such people. Especially migrant laborers. The plan that was introduced in the last year of the UPA regime was that Aadhaar should be implemented across the country and used for PDS and other schemes. You will get the benefits of Aadhaar, wherever you are. There is a great need to implement this scheme at this time. If we look back, it could have saved many people from trouble. If this happens, people would go to the local ration shop and show their Aadhaar that I am the beneficiary of PDS. For example, even though I am from Malda or Darbhanga or anywhere, I can take advantage of it in Mumbai. Even if my family lives in Malda or Darbhanga. But here is my claim. And if it did not, then it means that there is no system for many people. They are also not eligible for MNREGA because there is no MNREGA in Mumbai, and could not even be a part of PDS as they are not local residents.

Actually the problem is that while designing the welfare schemes, the thinking was that if someone is not at his place of origin then it is assumed that he is working and he is earning. And that's why this system collapsed.

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