NEW DELHI – Some of India's legions of poor and people suddenly thrown out of work by a nationwide stay-at-home order began receiving aid distribution Thursday, as both the public and private sector work to blunt the impact of efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic.
India's finance ministry announced a 1.7 trillion ($22 billion) economic stimulus package that will include delivering monthly grains and lentil rations to an astonishing 800 million people, some 60% of people in the world's second-most populous country.
In the meantime, the police in one state were giving rations of rice to shanty-dwellers, while another state's government deposited cash into the bank accounts of newly unemployed workers.