Congress leader Rahul Gandhi once again targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, claiming India has entered into a recession because of decisions taken by the PM.
“India has entered into recession for the first time in history. Mr Modi’s actions have turned India’s strength into its weakness,” Gandhi tweeted on Thursday. He attached a news report along with the tweet which talked about the state of India’s economy.
India has entered into recession for the first time in history.
Mr Modi’s actions have turned India’s strength into its weakness. pic.twitter.com/Y10gzUCzMO
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) November 12, 2020
In an article in Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monthly bulletin released on Wednesday, an official said that India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is likely to contract by 8.6 per cent for the July-September period, which means India will enter into a recession for the first time in history in the first half of this fiscal with two successive quarters of negative growth due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The researchers have used the ‘nowcasting’ method to arrive at the estimates ahead of the official release of data. However, their findings do not constitute the central bank’s views.
The pandemic-induced lockdowns had led to a steep contraction of 23.9 per cent in the GDP for the April-June quarter as compared to the same period a year ago. The RBI has estimated that the economy will contract by 9.5 per cent for the full fiscal year.
Gandhi has been targeting the Centre over the handling of the coronavirus crisis, accusing it of not doing enough for the people of the country. He also criticised the lockdown imposed by the Modi government.
He had said on Wednesday that the central government needs to have a vaccine distribution strategy after US pharmaceutical major Pfizer announced promising results of its coronavirus vaccine.
Meanwhile, the Centre on Wednesday approved a Rs 2 lakh crore production-linked incentive (PLI) package with a view to boost demand across India.
According to news agency Reuters, apart from the PLI package, government officials stated it is being planned to announce a fresh round of stimulus totalling about $20 billion this week to help pull the economy out of its historic contraction which will be finalised by PM Modi, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharman and other senior officials.
Source: Hindustan Times
