P Chidambaram, @PChidambaram_IN – Former Union Finance Minister:

Congress is happy that the Central Government has accepted its suggestions made over the last 4 weeks. They are:

• Ramp up testing (though there is still tardiness).
• Allow migrant workers to go to their home states (though government is still non-committal about running point-to-point trains).
• Provide liquidity to mutual funds.

There are many more suggestions made by the Congress that deserve to be accepted by the government forthwith. They are :

• Make cash transfers to the bottom half of the families (13 crore families).
• Provide financial assistance package including wage assistance and credit guarantee to MSMEs.
• Prepare Exit strategy after current lockdown ends on May 3
• Announce a Paycheque Protection Programme for low-salaried tax payers.