PM Narendra Modi in an exclusive interview with The Economic Times said, saving lives was not limited to saving lives from Covid-19, it was also about providing enough food and essentials to the poor.
“Even when most of the experts and newspapers were asking the government to release an economic package for the corporate sector, our focus was to save lives among the vulnerable populations. We first announced PM Garib Kalyan package to alleviate the suffering of the poor people, the migrants, farmers”, PM said.
“One special insight and understanding that came early to us was that the agriculture sector is one where the rule of social distancing can be more naturally maintained without compromising on productivity. So, we allowed agriculture activities almost from the very start. And we all see the results today with this sector doing exceptionally well despite so many months of disruption”, he added.
Modi also said that the record distribution of foodgrain, Shramik Special trains, and proactive procurement was undertaken for both the immediate and medium-term needs of the people.
“To ameliorate the hardships being faced by people we came up with an Atmanirbhar Bharat package. This package addressed issues being faced by all sections of society and all sectors of the economy. This also provided us with an opportunity to carry out reforms that were waiting to happen for decades but no one earlier took the initiative”, further, he added.
According to Modi, reforms across sectors such as coal, agriculture, labour, defence, civil aviation, and so on have been undertaken which will help us get back on the high growth path that we were on before the crisis. “Our efforts are bearing result as the Indian economy is already getting back on track faster than expected”, he said.