Government Is Committed To Save Lives, Nirmala Sitharaman Tells Corporates

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today brainstormed with industry chambers regarding their concerns over the Centre's management of Corona virus pandemic. She informed through a tweet that the government will continue to work with states to save lives and livelihood.

Ms Sitharaman said that she sought feedback from businesses to deal with the impact of the second COVID-19 wave on the country's economy.

Domestic economy had contracted by a whopping 23.9 per cent in the first quarter (April-June) of the previous financial year due to the outbreak of the pandemic.

"Spoke on telephone with each of the following business/Chamber leaders. She Took their inputs on industry/Association related matters. Informed them that GoI at various levels from @PMOIndia is responding to #Covidmanagement. Working together with states for lives and livelihoods," the Finance Minister said in a tweet.

She had interactions with heads of industry chambers including CII president Uday Kotak, Uday Shankar, president FICCI, and Vineet Agarwal, president of Assocham.

Ms Sitharaman also spoke to many business leaders like Tata Steel managing director T V Narendran, L&T chairman A M Naik, TCS managing director Rajesh Gopinathan, Maruti Suzuki chairman R C Bhargava, TVS Group chairman Venu Srinivasan and Hero Moto Corp managing director Pawan Munjal to take their feedback on the situation arising out of surging COVID-19 cases and local containments.

Last week, the Finance Minister made it clear that the government would not go for lockdowns in a big way and only resort to local containment to break the COVID-19 chain.