Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday interacted with former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan on the issue of economic crisis due to the lockdown via video conference.
Responding to the query of Rahul on the level of unemployment in India and how it is going to be in the future, Raghuram said, “The figures are worrying. According to CMIE data, about 10 crore more people will become unemployed due to Corona crisis. 5 crore will lose their jobs, 6 crore people will be out of the labor market. You can raise questions on a survey, but we have these figures in front of us.”
On the issue of testing and opening up of lockdown and the economy, Rajan said, “We have to be cleverer about opening up the lockdown. Mass testing is the need of the hour. Mass testing needs to be done in such a way that it would reduce the burden on the test infrastructure.”
Rajan further said, “Places where social distance can me maintained should be opened first. Work on creation of new structures and ensuring the safety of employees at workplace is important, so that no fresh case should arise after the opening of the lockdown and if it does there has to be a mechanism in place to isolate them without going for another lockdown.”
