New Delhi, Apr 17, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday rolled out a slew of measures to revive the economy, which had taken a beating due to Novel Coronavirus, while harvesting season took off in
agricultural states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, with traders maintaining social distancing measures.
The RBI further eased bad-loan rules, froze dividend payment by lenders and pushed banks to lend more by cutting the reverse repo rate by 25 basis points, as it unveiled a second set of measures to support the economy hit hard by a Coronavirus-led slowdown.
In his second televised address since the nationwide lockdown began from March 25, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das pledged to boost liquidity and expand bank credit.
With 1007 new cases of Novel Coronavirus and 23 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the total confirmed cases reached 13,387 in the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the announcements made by RBI on Friday and said these measures will enhance liquidity and improve credit supply.
In a tweet, Mr Modi said, ‘Today’s announcements by the RBI will greatly enhance liquidity and improve credit supply. These steps would help our small businesses, MSMEs, farmers and the poor. It will also help all states by increasing Ways and Means Advances (WMA) limits’.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said to increase MSME liquidity, the RBI announced a targeted long-term repo operation totalling Rs 50,000 crore aimed at mid and small NBFCs and MFIs. ‘This amount can be revised upwards if needed in the future. RBI also cut the reverse repo rate by 25 bps to 3.75 per cent.’
‘To increase MSME liquidity, the RBI announced a targeted long-term repo operation totalling Rs 50,000 crore aimed at mid and small NBFCs and MFIs. This amount can be revised upwards if needed in the future. RBI also cut the reverse repo rate by 25 bps to 3.75 per cent,’ she added.
The Group of Ministers on COVID-19 reviewed the testing strategy and availability of testing kits across the country along with the strategy for hotspots and cluster management and was informed that all districts have been asked to prepare and strengthen their contingency plans to combat COVID-19.
The 12th meeting of GoM on COVID-19, which met at Nirman Bhawan, under the chairmanship of Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, was informed that 170 districts were put in the red zone (hotspots) with 123 districts with large outbreaks and 47 districts with clusters.
