New Delhi: Group of Ministers brainstorms ways to restart economic activity

New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh chaired a meeting of a Group of Ministers (GoM) at his residence on Saturday to discuss "ways to mitigate the hardships faced by the people and the role ministries can play in providing relief to people".

The GoM discussed re-starting economic activity in non-containment zones after April 20, in line with announcements made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week.

The ministers also examined suggestions to re-enlist retired doctors and health professionals to boost medical capabilities in the war on the Covid-19 virus, as also calling on final-year medical students; the Assam government has already begun training students in treating coronavirus cases.

Piyush Goyal, Prakash Javadekar, Smriti Irani and Dharmendra Pradhan were in attendance. Also in attendance were Pralhad Joshi, Gajendra Singh Shekawat, Hardeep Puri, Ram Vilas Paswan and G Kishan Reddy.

"Interacted with the GoM on the Covid-19 situation. We discussed ways to mitigate the hardships faced by the people and the role ministries can play in providing relief to people.

The guidelines to allow limited activities and the measures announced by RBI were also appreciated," Rajnath Singh tweeted.

This is the fifth time that this Group of Ministers has met since a lockdown was imposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month to break the chain of transmission of the infectious novel coronavirus.