Here's what India wants from Modi’s financial package

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address the nation tonight, March 24 at 8:00 pm.
• While many believe that the measures announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam were in the right direction, more is needed to address the Coronavirus pandemic in India.
• Here’s what experts like former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and others expect from the Modi administration’s financial package.

As the government moves to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, the economy is on a pause mode and the stock markets are slipping into an abyss. At the same time, there are concerns that daily wagers and other workers who lost their jobs will suffer from acute poverty, and small businesses will close down.

Experts hope that some direction can come from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech tonight at 8:00 pm.

Finance Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcements on statutory and compliance changes — where many deadlines including income tax returns and GST filings have been postponed to June 30 among others things — have been lauded. However, many feel that more stringent measures are long overdue.

Market expert Ajay Bagga told CNBC Awaaz that these changes, while needed, were ill-timed and took up one-and-a-half hours of market time.

Earlier, former director of Infosys TV Mohandas Pai also questioned the administration on why the Corona package is taking so long to pass.

“We must take stock of the economic losses in different sectors and announce a stimulus package that will help citizens in dire straits as well as industries directly impacted by the virus,” wrote Pai.

Here’s what India is expecting from Modi’s Financial package: