NEW DELHI : India unveiled an initial plan to put its battered economy back to work and restore its broken supply chain, as it sketched out the first cautious steps out of the lockdown.
Starting 20 April, India will allow key parts of the economy, including agriculture, logistics, infrastructure, e-commerce and factories (located outside the municipal corporations and municipalities’ limit), to return to work in areas where no infections have been reported, the government said on Wednesday.
The Narendra Modi government is attempting to balance the need to limit the damage to the economy and livelihoods of as many as 400 million poor against the risk of the coronavirus outbreak spreading further through community transmission.
The plan for the graded lifting of curbs comes even as India counted more than 12,000 infections and 400 deaths and the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday slashed its FY21 growth projection for India to just 1.9% from 5.8% projected in January. Barclays cut its growth forecast for the country to 0% for 2020.
