Rahul Gandhi shows the way to boost economy with Dr. Abhijeet Banerjee

Rahul Gandhi continues to contribute to the betterment of the nation in the time of coronavirus crisis

He interacted with Nobel laureate economist Abhijit Banerjee to find ways out of the economic fallout

"India needs a bigger stimulus package and money should be put in the hands of people to revive demand", Abhijit Banerjee said

This is the second instalment of the Congress leader's discussion series that began with renowned economist Raghuram Rajan last week.

Abhijit Banerjee said in the interaction that cash transfers must go beyond the poorest of the poor.

Rahul Gandhi noted that many small and medium businesses hit by the COVID-19 lockdown could "go bankrupt", this, he said, would cost jobs.

"That's the reason a lot of us have been saying that we need a stimulus package," the renowned economist agreed.

" We really haven't decided on a large enough stimulus package....

... We are still talking about 1% of GDP. United States has gone for 10% of GDP."

India should take a cue from the US by pumping in more money in the hands of the people to revive demand, Dr. Banerjee said

He suggested that one should try to be optimistic about overall economic revival in India post-lockdown.

"Giving money in the hands of everybody, so that they can buy in stores or they buy consumer goods."

Rahul Gandhi suggested he was talking about some form of direct cash transfer to people

Dr Banerjee said the beneficiaries must be among the poorest, but it was important to decide what criteria to target.

"I would say bottom 60% of the population, we give them some money, nothing bad will happen in my view," said the economist.

Dr Banerjee said he believed while it was important to come out of the lockdown, one needed to be aware of disease's path.

"The sooner you come out of the lockdown of course depends on the disease.

You don't want to take down the lockdown when a lot of people are getting sick.

We have to kind of be aware of the time path of the disease," he said.

Rahul Gandhi raised the scale of the food problem and how it was not reaching people because of ration cards.

Dr Banerjee said that temporary ration cards should be handed out to anybody who wants one.

On the crisis of migrants stranded by the lockdown ,the two discussed the need for a decentralised system..

... where the movement of migrant labour should have been handled by the centre.