Fiscal deficit worries could be on backburner: Niti Aayog's Rajiv Kumar

'If you have to spend money because you have to save both lives and livelihoods then that's what you have to do,' he says.

India should not let fiscal deficit worries stop it from spending more to fight the Covid-19 crisis, an adviser to Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

“If you have to spend money because you have to save both lives and livelihoods then that’s what you have to do,” Rajiv Kumar, vice chairman of the federal government’s think-tank Niti Aayog, said in an interview. “Issues about fiscal space could be on the backburner.”

There is a high probability of a third wave of coronavirus infections in India given what has been seen in most other countries, Kumar said, by way of supporting his prescription