COVID-19: Lockdown may render around 15 lakhs jobless in India

New Delhi : The novel coronavirus pandemic may render around 15 lakh people jobless who are employed in the food service sector in the country due to the on-going lockdown. The Union government has imposed a 21-day-long complete shutdown till April 14, 2020 to contain the outbreak of the COVID-19. But this on-going lockdown may render lakh of people jobless, said the National Restaurant Association of India(NRAI). Expressing apprehension of such a massive impending problem in the country the NRAI has demanded aid from the Union government. NRAI president Anurag Katriar said to media that the industry has calculated that around 1.5 million people in the sector may lose their jobs due to the lockdown.” The biggest worry that we are presently facing massive unemployment. Our food service sector employs about 73 lakh people. Out of them 1.5millions or 20 per cent may lose their jobs,” he said. Similar apprehensions has also been expressed by some prominent industry players of the sector like Riyaaz Amlani (CEO of Impresario Handmade Restaurants) and Ankit Mehrota.(CEO, Dineout). However, the Reserve Bank of India has, on Friday asserted some relief to industries by cutting repo rate and relaxing in loan-EMIs in the country.

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