Hardik Patel fearmongers; cites United Nations to claim Covid will set India back 10 years

As India fights the coronavirus pandemic, Congress leader Hardik Patel on Monday made a false claim without backing it by any facts and said that India will be "pushed back" by 10 years due to lockdown and 10 crore people will become poor, attributing this to the United Nations. Taking to Twitter, he added that 68% of India's total population will be poor. Questioning the government, he asked that is it ready to face the new epidemic?

'There are 81 crore people under the poverty line in India'

Patel cited the United Nations to back his claim but however, it is evident the international body has not made any such remark against India.

'...with likely exception of India and China': UN

The world economy will go into recession this year with a predicted loss of trillions of dollars of global income due to the coronavirus pandemic, spelling serious trouble for developing countries with the likely exception of India and China, according to a latest UN trade report.

"Even so, the world economy will go into recession this year with a predicted loss of global income in trillions of dollars. This will spell serious trouble for developing countries, with the likely exception of China and the possible exception of India," the UNCTAD had said.

The report, however, did not give a detailed explanation as to why and how India and China will be the exceptions as the world faces a recession and loss in global income that will impact developing countries.

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'Light still shines through bravely'

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday in his video briefing said that India is estimated to have the highest growth among G20 countries and is amongst the handful of countries to have positive GDP growth as per International Monetary Fund (IMF). Das said that the macroeconomic situation has deteriorated and the global economy may plunge into the worst recession since the great depression.

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