No limousine, small guest lists among austerity measures announced by President

President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday decided to take a 30 per cent salary cut for the whole year besides announcing a slew of other austerity measures to aid the nation's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The domestic tours and programmes of the President will be substantially reduced in order to follow social distancing restrictions and minimise expenditure, according to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique issued on Thursday.

Instead, the president will largely rely on technology to reach out to people, it said. Usually, the president travels to different parts of the country to attend various official programmes. There are state visits abroad too.

Announcing the several measures, the communique said in the President's estimation this will be a "small but significant contribution to realise the government's vision of making India self-reliant (Atmanirbhar) and energise the nation to take up the challenge to fight the pandemic and continue our journey for development and prosperity simultaneously."