''Tiding Over Third Wave Possible With Higher Vaccination Rate'': Shaktikanta Das

With adequate COVID-19 pandemic protocols and a ramp-up in the vaccination rate, India should be able to tide over a third wave, if it occurs, said Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das while addressing the bi-monthly monetary policy committee statement today. ''As a nation, we should continue to be vigilant and ready to proactively deal with any resurgence of the pandemic with more rapidly transmissible mutants of the virus, should it happen,'' said the RBI Governor.

The comments from the industry leader come at a time when the country stares at a looming threat of a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic amid a slow pace of vaccination coverage across states. As the economy is in a nascent stage of recovery from the deadly second wave of the pandemic, the RBI retained the gross domestic product (GDP) growth projection for the current fiscal at 9.5 per cent.

The RBI Governor also said that the central bank remains in "whatever it takes" mode to revive growth as it kept the GDP growth forecast unchanged at 9.5 per cent for the current financial year. 

“The monetary policy reflects the overall market sentiment of ‘wait and watch' with the projected GDP, inflation and liquidity being more or less constant.

The MPC believes that continuing the accommodative stance will nurture the emerging and cautious recovery in the domestic economy in the relatively uncertain financial environment(where the pace of global recovery is being reined in by the resurgence of infections ) – which will go a long way in turn to reduce the uncertainty in the market factors for investors,'' said Anjana Potti, Partner, J Sagar Associates.