NEW DELHI: Abhijit Banerjee, co-recipient of the Nobel for economics in 2019, has suggested that India should waive off loan repayments for small businesses in the June quarter and give cash to the poorest 60% of the population as part of a stimulus package to steer the economy out of the pandemic-induced crisis. “I think spending is the easiest way to revive the economy.
Because then MSMEs get money, they spend it and then it has the usual Keynesian chain reaction," said Banerjee in an interaction with Congress party's former president Rahul Gandhi through a video call.
Banerjee suggested the government can go beyond the three-month moratorium announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and take responsibility of loan repayments in the