Centre should use fiscal powers to ease state constraints: Yamini Aiyar

She says India needs to avoid another nationwide lockdown

As lockdown restrictions ease gradually, Yamini Aiyar, president and chief executive, Centre for Policy Research, discusses with Aditi Phadnis some of the dos and don’ts the governments should keep in mind while planning for the future. Key among them, she says, will be providing more clarity on the stimulus for small businesses, converting central schemes to untied block grants, empowering local governments and addressing worker indignities. Edited excerpts:
 

As we inch towards the end of the lockdown, what are the issues that the Centre must keep in mind?
 

The approach has to be to avoid another nationwide lockdown. The social