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India, on nationwide lockdown, unveils $23 billion relief package.

On the second day of India’s nationwide lockdown to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, the government announced a relief package of 1.7 trillion rupees, or $22.6 billion, to ease the economic pain that it will cause India’s 1.3 billion residents.

The centerpiece of the plan unveiled on Thursday is an increased ration of free food for the 800 million poorest Indians. The government will give each family an additional 5 kilograms of rice or wheat and 1 kilogram of pulses per person per month for the next three months. The food would supplement existing food allocations poor families already receive.

The most vulnerable people — poor women, farmers, widows, and senior citizens — will also receive small direct cash transfers to their bank accounts.

The extended lockdown is expected to be particularly hard on poor workers, most of whom feed themselves from their day’s earnings. With everyone ordered to stay inside and virtually all businesses closed, these workers no longer have a way to make a living.

For medical workers and others on the front line of the coronavirus response, the government said it would provide 5 million rupees, or about $67,000, of health insurance coverage.

For wealthier workers employed by corporations, the central government will make all the required contributions for the next three months to their state-sponsored retirement accounts.

Reporting was contributed by Vindu Goel, Neil Irwin, Peter S. Goodman, Patricia Cohen, Ben Casselman, Geneva Abdul, Amie Tsang, Carlos Tejada, Alexandra Stevenson, Su-Hyun Lee and Heather Murphy.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/business/stock-market-today-coronavirus.html