Raghuram Rajan rubbishes report of chairing IMF webinar on coronavirus

Raghuram Rajan on Tuesday refuted reports that he chaired an webinar purportedly from an International Monetary Fund (IMF) session. The former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor rejected the claims as fake news in a post on his LinkedIn account. "A webinar, purportedly from an IMF session that I am supposed to have chaired, is circulating among Indian WhatsApp groups. I have not participated in any such webinar. I am afraid in this age of fake news it is hard to respond to every such occurrence. I can only say that I post all my relevant public statements on this site only," Raghuram Rajan said.

"India seems to have supressed the curve so far. It looks like it might escape the worst of the pandemic, but will have to be cautious about it," a part of viral WhatsApp message said citing a webinar chaired by Raghuram Rajan. The overall message shared various takeaways from the webinar on the coronavirus scenario chaired by former RBI governor. In a separate LinkedIn blog, Rajan had said that the coronavirus pandemic is the greatest emergency perhaps since Independence. The former RBI Governor had warned the Centre that non-performing assets (NPA) could increase due to the outbreak. He had also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prioritise spending on the poor to help them get through the crisis.

Meanwhile, India recorded 1,329 new cases and 44 deaths in 24 hours. According to the latest data by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India has so far recorded 18,985 confirmed coronavirus cases including 15,122 active cases, 3,259 cured or discharged, 1 migrated, and 603 deaths. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Delhi stands at 2,081 with death toll at 47 following Maharashtra which is the worst-hit in India with coronavirus tally at 4,669, while 232 people succumbed to the virus in the state. Maharashtra also has the highest number of coronavirus deaths in the country. Gujarat is the third state with the highest number of COVID-19 cases at 2,066 and death toll at 77.