Rahul Gandhi in conversation with Raghuram Rajan on COVID19 and its economic impact, Episode - 1

 30 Apr 2020 ( News Bureau )
POSTER

Significant dialogue between former National President of the Indian National Congress, Rahul Gandhi and former Governor of Reserve Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan on the Corona epidemic, India's Modi government's claims to deal with it and the future economic challenges arising out of it.

Rahul Gandhi: Hello.

Raghuram Rajan: Good morning, how are you?

Rahul Gandhi: I'm good, nice to see you.

Raghuram Rajan: Me too.

Rahul Gandhi: In the era of Corona virus, there are a lot of questions in the mind of the people, what is happening, what is going to happen, especially with regard to the economy. I thought of an interesting way to answer these questions, to talk to you about it so that I as well as the common people can know what you think about all this?

Raghuram Rajan: Thanks, for talking to me and for this dialogue. I believe that at this critical time, as much information as possible can be obtained on this issue and it should be conveyed to the people as much as possible.

Rahul Gandhi: What I think is a big issue right now is how do we open the economy? What are the parts of the economy that you think are very important to open and what should be the way to open them?

Raghuram Rajan: This is an important question because as we try to reverse the curve of infection and prevent congestion in hospitals and medical facilities, we need to think about resuming people's livelihood Have to start. It is very easy to put a lockdown in the long run, but obviously it is not good for the economy.

You do not have a fixed security but you can start opening up areas that have relatively few cases, with the thought and policy that you will screen people as effectively as possible and when the case comes up you We will try to stop him and make sure that all the arrangements are in place to stop it.

It should have a sequence. First of all, we have to identify places where distance can be maintained, and this should not only apply to work places, but also to and from work. Transport structure has to be seen. Do people have personal vehicles? They have bicycles or scooters or cars. Will have to see all this. Or people come to work from public transport. How will you ensure distancing in public transport?

It will take a lot of work and hard work to make all this arrangement. At the same time, it has to be ensured that the workplace is relatively safe. Along with this, it has to be seen that if there are no accidental cases coming up accidentally, then how fast we can isolate people without implementing the third or fourth lowdown. If this happens, there will be a crisis.

Rahul Gandhi: Many people say that if we end the lockdown in a phased manner. If we open now and are forced to lockdown again. If this happens, it will be very dangerous for the economy because it will completely destroy trust. Do you agree with this?

Raghuram Rajan: Yes, I think it is right to think. Talking about the second lockdown, it means that we were not fully successful in the first time. This raises the question that if opened this time, then there will be no need for a third lockdown and this will bring credibility.

With this I would like to say that we talk about 100 percent success. That is, there should be no case anywhere. That is difficult to achieve at the moment. In such a situation, what we can do is to start removing the lockdown and isolate it wherever the case appears.

Rahul Gandhi: But in this whole arrangement it would be very important to know where there is more infection? And testing is the only way for this. At the moment there is a feeling in India that our testing capacity is limited. In a large country, our testing capacity is limited compared to the US and European countries. How do you see a small number of tests taking place?

Raghuram Rajan: Good question. Take the example of America. There are up to one and a half lakh tests a day, but experts there, especially experts in infected diseases, believe that this capacity needs to be tripled, that is, if there are 5 lakh tests per day, then you think about opening the economy. Some are talking about testing up to 10 lakhs.

Given India's population, we should test it four times. If you want to reach America's level, then we have to do 20 lakh tests everyday but we are only able to do 25-30 thousand tests now.

Rahul Gandhi: See now, the effect of the virus is there and after some time the economy will have an impact on the people. It will be a setback that is going to happen in the next two months. How can you balance the fight with the virus and its effects over the next 3-4 months?

Raghuram Rajan: You have to think on these two now. You cannot wait for the effects to come out because you are fighting the virus on one side and the whole country is in lockdown on the other side. Surely people have to provide food. The homes have to see the status of the migrants who have left, they need shelter, medical facilities. This needs to be done all at once.

Rahul Gandhi's conversation with Raghuram Rajan on the corona virus and its economic impact, Episode - 2

 

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