India’s Covid relief comes to $302 per capita: ADB

India's over $410 billion

Covid-19 relief package ranks as the second biggest among Asia's developing countries, but this, when translated to per capita relief, slips many places down the ladder.

Among ADB's developing members, the top three packages are those of China at $2.3 trillion, India at $412 billion and the Republic of Korea at

$248 billion.

However, the per capita package in India is a low

$302 against $15,629 in Singapore, $4,799 in Republic of Korea, $2,528 in Malaysia, $1,658 in China and $1,208 in Thailand.

"If we look at ADB's developing members, we see large countries such as India or Indonesia with seemingly small packages per capita of

$302 and $426, respectively," the Asian Development Bank said in its study.

However, whether a package on a per capita basis is adequate to address the Covid-19 pandemic is a difficult question with no easy answer. It depends on the government's objectives, both with respect to the pandemic and other economic objectives like fear of running a fiscal deficit and how it perceives the situation, it added.

India allocated 38.6 per cent share of its total package for liquidity support, which includes short-term lending to the private sector, regulatory adjustments to liquidity requirements and foreign exchange operations. India's actions included increased short-term repurchase agreements (0.1 per cent of GDP), variable-term repurchase agreements (0.5 per cent of GDP) and special refinance facilities for rural banks, housing finance companies and small enterprises (0.2 per cent of GDP).

Among ADB developing members, China and India allocated the largest amounts to direct income support to households and individuals at $1.3 trillion and $194.4 billion, respectively.

In India direct income support makes up 10.9 per cent of the total package. Other actions implemented by India include subsidies for businesses, investments in health institutions and programmes for the agriculture sector.