History will judge us by our actions today ;The government is keen to open up the activities of industry, trade and economy but not at the cost of lives of its citizens, Shri Piyush Goyal, Hon’ble Minister for Commerce and Industries, Government of India

No.PR-21

April 23, 2020

New Delhi

History will judge us by our actions today ;The government is keen to open up the activities of industry, trade and economy but not at the cost of lives of its citizens, Shri Piyush Goyal, Hon’ble Minister for Commerce and Industries, Government of India

In these global trying times, India has shown out like a bright star, under the astute leadership of our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji, by staying ahead of the curves. Today the whole world looks up to India and praises Shri Narendra Modi Ji and the citizens of India for accepting the challenge, of the fight against Covid-19, with positivity, said Shri Piyush Goyal.

Be it the rich or poor, everyone is suffering due to the pandemic spread, the suffering of the rich and the industry maybe larger in terms of value but the truth is that it is the poor who is the most affected. As a government keeping a balance between saving lives and livelihood, it may be seen that the government measures and initiatives are always more skewed towards the safety of the poor, needy and the less privileged, said Shri Piyush Goyal.

History will judge us by our actions today, we have studied the history of past global pandemics and it has been observed that the countries which focused more on the health of its countrymen and took stringent measures to save lives and cared for the health of their citizens fought the adversities better and post the lockdown such economies bounced back and revived much faster than the economies which placed preference to livelihood more than the lives of their citizens, as they suffered the worse shocks of pandemic and took significantly longer time to recover and resume their growth path , said Shri Goyal.

The Hon’ble Minister suggested all industries to access the risks of the businesses, think of innovative ways to expand business and not panic.

We assure that economic activities will be revived wherever possible and at the earliest, but we request each citizen to abide by our Hon’ble Prime Minister’s guidelines to be religiously followed to contain the spread of pandemic, said Shri Goyal.

We should all spread the awareness to download the Arogyasetu App that will aid the government in understanding the best way forward by taking the right decisions and measures to free the Nation from the grip of Covid 19, said Shri Goyal.

It should be our National Duty to buy and consume Made in India goods rather than expecting the government to levy stringent import laws or stop imports from other Nations as this move could work against our Nation as other countries will then stop imports from India too, thereby significantly reducing our exports which will adversely affect our economic growth, said Shri Goyal. Dr D K Aggarwal, President PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry assured the the Hon’ble Minister of Commerce and Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal Ji the full support in all endeavors of the government and also apprised him that the members of PHD Chamber has generously made contribution of Rs 525 Crores to the PM CARES Fund apart from distributing lakhs of food packets, sanitizers, masks and other personal protective equipment.

Dr Aggarwal while appreciating the extensive reform measures undertaken by the government to contain the spread of pandemic Covid-19, highly lauded the Hon’ble Minister’s efforts to maximum industry interactions and we highly appreciate the Hon’ble Minister’s direction to allow movement of trucks and transportation of all goods, both essential and non-essential items, this move will go a long way in boosting the morale of Indian industry which is facing the heat of the lockdown, said Dr Aggarwal.

Dr D K Aggarwal, highly appreciated the Hon’ble Minister’s efforts for addressing the industry stakeholder through maximum number of industry interactions and assuring full support of the government in reviving and aiding the growth of the Indian industry.

We urge the government to provide an increased stimulus relief package of Rs 16 lakh crore which is around 7% of GDP sooner than later to mitigate the impact of Pandemic Covid -19 on economy, trade and Industry through various relief measures and benefits, said Dr Aggarwal.

A significant stimulus of 7% of GDP would help the economy to grow at around 4% in the current financial year 2020-21, rejuvenate the businesses and refuel the economic growth trajectory of the country, said Dr Aggarwal.

Such reform measures would go a long way to help trade and industry to resume business activity in this extremely difficult time, said Dr Aggarwal.

We highly appreciate the Reserve Bank of India’s recent reform measures but it has been evident that the RBI rate cuts are not being implemented by the banks and passed on to the end consumer in form of interest rate cuts. We request that it should not be a advisory but a directive issued by RBI to the banks, NBFCs and other financial institutions, said Dr Aggarwal.

Ends

Media Division

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry