HTLS 2020 Day 3 highlights: Bhupesh Baghel on state of Congress

Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel played down the crisis in Congress, saying the people who have voiced their dissent do not speak on national issues, and just speak about internal issues of the party in public. "Who has stopped Congress dissenters from speaking within party?" he asked.

"When Congress loses, everyone starts asking questions. BJP lost in Jharkhand, but nobody asked them anything. Journalists think we are weak, so launch attacks on us. There were coordination issues in Bihar polls. The party is analysing all this, and you will get the answers. I can't comment on this from here."

"The leaders used to meet people, party workers but everything has been halted due to Covid-19. We never thought about this. It's good that we can hold virtual conferences, thanks to technology. But these changes have been unexpected," said Baghel.

"The initiatives we took (during Covid-19) benefitted every person in Chhattisgarh. We provides free food, and other things also. Only 26,000 people left, while seven lakh came back. But we never let Covid-19 take a toll on the state's economy. The entire country suffered, but there was no slowdown in Chhattisgarh," said Baghel.

Covid-19 has been a challenge for us. PM Modi suddenly announced nationwide lockdown. We held discussions with our officials. The first thing we did was to provide free ration to the poor for three months - this was the firt time a state government did this.

Talking about the state of the economy, SBI Chairman Dinesh Khara said that he is seeing a lot of positive activity in the rural economy. "Migrant labourers are returning to cities," said Khara.

"Every such situation (like Covid-19) leads to a scenario where people's habits change. Post this pandemic, virtual meetings and contactless payment has become a reality. I think part of it will stay. We have seen a rapid increase in YONO adoption. The customers tasted and liked the flavour."

The monetary policy committee of the central bank will adopt an accommodative stance, SBI Chairman Dinesh Khara said.

"We have seen 12% increase in home loan disbursal. The trend might differ in various parts of the country, but there is an uptick in demand, especially in the affordable housing sector. This sector is showing promise going forward."

"Post-Unlock, every day is a new day. The way economic revival is happening, it is giving hope to many. The evaluation matrix is seeing change, in corporate houses too. People will wait for demand revival."

"Corporate houses are concerned about funds, and there are some other issues which is why they have not shows much interest in applying for banking license. But I am confident that it will happen by March next year."

"When regulations are there, an important aspect is how these are implemented by the management. The corporate governance might not have been implemented properly, which led to YES Bank and other such incidents."

"The second quarter of India's economy has seen significant improvement. I'll co-relate it with the unlock situation. Unlocks lead to rise in demands , which leads to improvement in significant improvement."

Defence minister Rajnath Singh said that the Assembly election in West Bengal next year will be very good for th Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "Can't rule out two-third majority for BJP in Bengal," he said.

I appeal to farmers to end their protest. We are not against them, and are open for talks. They should understand that the newly-passed farm bills will benefit small farmers.