Budget 2018-19

  Congress leader says ‘inaction is killing people’, wants government to protect the poor in the pandemic. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the only way to stop the spread of coronavirus now was a full lockdown with the protection of minimum income guarantee scheme, NYAY, for the vulnerable sections. “GOI doesn’t get it. The only way to stop the spread of Corona now is a full lockdown- with the protection of NYAY for the vulnerable sections,” Gandhi said in a tweet. “GOI’s inaction is killing many innocent people,” he said. The  Congress  has been asserting that the central and state governments move to control the situation by resorting to partial curfews, travel restrictions, closure and lockdowns will again be restricting economic activity that will hit the poor and, therefore, it was imperative to provide monthly income support. Gandhi has been pushing for the implementation of the party’s proposed Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY) providing minimum income guarant...

  While cities from New York to London to Melbourne went into shutdown, the entirety of Taiwan stayed open for business I was at Hong Kong international airport the morning the U.S. reported its first case of the virus out of Wuhan, China. News had already been circulating about this deadly new illness in Taiwan, my point of departure, and I spent that layover rushing around looking for the provisions needed to minimize the risk on my flight to New York. Masks were out of stock but I eventually found a small bottle of sanitizer with a cartoon Shiba Inu dog on the label, an irony I’d later appreciate. At the airline lounge, staff were dismissive of my suggestion that hand sanitizer be made available at the counter to all passengers. I knew that would change. By the time I landed at JFK airport, Chinese authorities had shut down Wuhan in an admission that this virus was serious and spreading. Yet that move was far too late. Three days earlier Taiwan had already set up its Central Epi...