Policy balance
The recent appointment of Sanjay Malhotra as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), replacing Shaktikanta Das, signals a pivotal shift in India’s monetary policy dynamics.
PM CARES Fund Trust on Wednesday decided to allocate Rs 3100 crore for the fight against COVID-19 out of which approximately Rs 2000 crore will be earmarked for the purchase of ventilators, Rs 1000 crore will be used for the care of migrant labourers and Rs100 crore will be given to support vaccine development.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while announcing this package, thanked all the donors for their generosity in contributing to the PM CARES Fund that was formed on 27 March 2020.
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1. 50,000 Ventilators
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50000 ‘Made-in-India’ ventilators will be purchased from PM CARES Fund at a cost of approximately Rs 2000 crores. These ventilators will be provided to government-run COVID hospitals in all States and UTs for better treatment of the critical COVID-19 cases.
2. Relief Measures for Migrants
The States and UTs will be given a lump sum assistance of Rs 1000 crore from PM CARES Fund for strengthening the existing measures being taken for the welfare of the migrants and poor.
This amount would be provided to the State Governments and UTs to place it at the disposal of the District Collectors/Municipal Commissioners for strengthening their efforts in providing accommodation facilities, making food arrangements, providing medical treatment and making transportation arrangements of the migrants.
State/UT-wise funds will be released on the weightage of:
(a) Population of the State/UT as per 2011 Census – 50%, weightage
(b) Number of positive COVID-19 cases as on date – 40% weightage
(c) Equal share (10% weightage) for all States and UTs to ensure basic minimum sum for all states.
The fund will be released to the District Collector/District Magistrate/Municipal Commissioner through the State Disaster Relief Commissioner of the States/UTs concerned.
3. Vaccine Development
To support the COVID-19 vaccine designers and developers, an amount of Rs 100 crore will be given from PM CARES Fund as a helping hand to catalyse vaccine development which will be utilized under the supervision of Principal Scientific Advisor.
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