Coronavirus: Before Lockdown 3.0 Modi huddle to keep economy on rails

60 hours before the Centre announced Lockdown 3.0, Prime Minister Narendra Modi huddled with top policymakers to ensure that the battle to save lives does not wipe away livelihood.

In the last two days, the Prime Minister held a series of review meetings with leaders of various sectors and his top ministers to ensure that while life in lockdown is eased, the economy also stays on the rail. Announcement of a fat package to boost the MSME sector is on the anvil, a senior minister said.

On Friday morning, the Prime Minister huddled in a high-level meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Health Minister Harshvardhan and Chief of Defence Staff Vipin Rawat among others before the Railways announced running ‘Shrameek Special’ trains to ferry the migrants and the service chiefs of all the three forces announced elaborate plans to felicitate doctors and health workers that included spraying of flower petals from the sky on hospitals.

The measures came in the backdrop of a rising number of agitations by migrants from different states, who wanted to go back to their homes and a larger number of medical professionals including doctors contracting Covid-19, which could have dampened their spirit at a time when the positive cases have grown, crossing 35 thousand.

Modi also held a comprehensive meeting to review the strategies that could help in making India’s Civil Aviation sector more efficient in which it was decided that the Indian Air Space should be effectively used in such a manner that the flying time is reduced benefitting the traveling public and also helping the airlines to save costs in close co-operation with the Department of Military Affairs.

For generating more revenue as well as to bring in more efficiency at the airports, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has been asked to expedite the process of handing over of 6 more airports on PPP basis, by commencing the tender process within three months.

The Prime Minister held a separate detailed meeting on the Power Sector and discussed various long-term reforms for enhancing sustainability, resilience, and efficiency of the sector.

The discussions included measures regarding ease of doing business; propagation of renewables, flexibility in supply of coal, role of public-private partnerships; and boosting investment in the power sector.

On Thursday Modi deliberated upon the potential reforms to ensure a robust and self-reliant defence industry in India that caters to short and long term needs of the armed forces and initiatives to give a boost to the economy in the backdrop of COVID-19. The discussions involved reforming of the functioning of the Ordnance factories, streamlining procurement procedures, focused resource allocation, encouraging Research and Development innovation, attracting investment in critical defence technologies and promotion of exports.

A meeting was also held to discuss strategies to attract more foreign investments into India as well as to promote local investments in order to give a boost to the economy against the backdrop of the COVID-19 Pandemic. It was discussed that a scheme should be developed to promote more plug and play infrastructure in the existing industrial lands, plots, estates in the country and provide necessary financing support.

Various strategies to bring investments into India in a fast-track mode and to promote Indian domestic sectors were discussed. Detailed discussions were held on guiding states to evolve their strategies and be more proactive in attracting investments.

Modi has also held deliberations on the potential economic reforms in Mines and Coal Sectors to give a boost to the economy that involved ensuring easy and abundant availability of mineral resources from domestic sources, upscaling exploration, attracting investment and modern technology, to generate large scale employment through transparent and efficient processes.