Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a slew of stimulus measures to give fillip to the pandemic-hit economy. Incentivising job creation, credit guarantee support for stressed sectors — including health and real estate — were among the announcements.

Among the key announcements is a job plan called Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana that incentivises job-creation in the post-COVID recovery period and acredit guarantee scheme that will help the stressed sectors such as health and housing.

On the job plan, Sitharaman said, “If new employees of requisite number are recruited from October 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, the establishments will be covered for the next two years.”

The healthcare system that has faced huge challenges in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic will also receive some stimulus. “We are launching credit guarantee support scheme for healthcare sector and 26 sectors stressed due to #COVID19. Entities will get additional credit up to 20% of outstanding credit, repayment can be done in five years’ time,” Sitharaman said.

Speaking about the state of the economy and the green-shoots of recovery that the RBI has spoken about, she said, “RBI predicts a strong likelihood of the Indian economy returning to positive growth in Q3:2020-21, ahead by a quarter of the earlier forecast.”

Listing the steps already taken by the government to tackle the economic stress brought in by the pandemic. Sitharaman said that GST collections have gone up and FDI inflows are up 13 per cent year-on-year.

Referring to her October 12 announcement, when she had announced the option of a festival advance for employees, she said, “SBI Utsav cards are being distributed, under the festival advance scheme announced on 12th Oct. 11 states sanctioned Rs 3,621 crores as an interest-free loan towards capital expenditure.”

Thursday’s announcements are a follow up of earlier stimulus steps announced by the government to lift the sagging economy. 

Last month, the finance minister had announced steps to spur demand and ramp-up capital expenditure among them a festival advance for government employees. This was the third stimulus package since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.