Nobel-prize winning economist Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee wants centre to be more generous in providing coronavirus relief packages

Nobel-prize winning economist Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee has urged the Indian government to be more aggressive in helping the poor amid the coronavirus lockdown. In a interview to BBC Banerjee says, “We haven’t done anything close to enough,”Possibly there is the fear of inflation, when there is not much supply of goods and services. But India has to do something about bridging the income gap that has been created. The government has to be more aggressive about spending money.”In his interview, Dr. Banerjee pointed out that the pandemic was a “double whammy” for those who had lost their earning capacity, at a time when the economy was already facing a demand slump.

Continuing further he said, India needs to think of a clear, well-articulated plan on what should be done next,”One of the recommendation of the India-born economist was providing extra cash to the beneficaries of the current welfare plans so that a “mood for demand” could be created once the lockdown is lifted. He concluded by saying “People need reassurance and  the government has to be proactive in reassuring people. “it won’t be always accurate in identifying who’s deserving of the benefit and who’s not  but we are not trying to be perfect at this point in time this is an emergency.” In his conversation with BBC Prof Banerjee also spoke about how  India should not be afraid to print money to fund the expansion of welfare benefits.