Even Pak, Afghan handled COVID better than India: Rahul
NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took a dig at the Centre on Friday over IMF’s projection that the Indian economy is set to contract by a massive 10.3 per cent this year, saying it was another “solid achievement” by the government.
Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at the government on Twitter by tagging a chart that showed IMF growth projections for 2020-21 for Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, China, Bhutan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and India. The chart showed that the Indian economy is projected to contract by a massive 10.3 per cent this year, the highest contraction among the countries mentioned.
“Another solid achievement by the BJP government. Even Pakistan and Afghanistan handled Covid better than India,” Gandhi tweeted with the chart. The former Congress chief on Wednesday had also taken a dig at the government over IMF growth projections showing Bangladesh closing in on India in terms of per capita GDP this year and described it as a “solid achievement” of six years of BJP’s “hate-filled cultural nationalism”.
The Indian economy, severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic, is projected to contract by a massive 10.3 per cent this year, the IMF had said on Tuesday.
However, India is likely to bounce back with an impressive 8.8 per cent growth rate in 2021, thus regaining the position of the fastest growing emerging economy, surpassing China’s projected growth rate of 8.2 per cent, the IMF said in its latest ‘World Economic Outlook’ report.
India’s fatality rate 1.52 pc, lowest since March 22: Health Ministry India has one of the lowest 81 COVID-19 deaths per million population in the world with less than 1,000 fatalities registered daily since October 4, while the fatality rate of 1.52 per cent on Friday was the lowest since March 22, the Health Ministry said. India too maintained the trend of registering more recoveries than the new cases, with 70,338 people having recuperated in 24 hours as against 63,371 fresh instances of the infection being reported.