PM Modi announces Rs 20,00,000 lakh stimulus package and lockdown 4

New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced a handsome sum of Rs 20,00,000 crore as a stimulus package to recover the losses due to coronavirus and lockdown. India will not be controlled by a virus, instead, it will rise from Lockdown 4 with a new set of rules.

The special economic package, equivalent to around 10 per cent of India's GDP, would be the main component of "Aatma Nirbhar Bharat" or self-reliant India, the Prime Minister said, addressing the nation for the third time since he announced a total lockdown in late March.

"The package will focus on land, labour, liquidity and law; it will help small businesses, labourers, farmers, the middle class and cottage industries. It will focus on the well-being of migrant workers too," said the PM.

"Day labourers, migrant workers have suffered much in this period. It is our duty now to do something for them."

Complete details about lockdown 4 will be shared before May 18, he said.

"Corona will be with us for a long time but our lives cannot revolve around it. We will wear masks, we will follow doh gaj doori (six-foot distance), but we won't let it derail our targets," he stressed.

India, he said, must realize its potential as the lead player in the 21st century by focusing on its self-reliance.

He listed what he called five pillars for self-reliance: "Economy with potential for quantum jump, infrastructure, technology-driven system, demography and an intelligence-driven supply system where the strength of our demand and supply chain should be utilized to full capacity."