Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an economic bailout package worth Rs 1.7 lakh crore to help the poor tide over the impact of the countrywide lockdown that is in place to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The benefits – through cash and food – were targeted at farmers, migrant workers, the poor, women and the disabled, among others.Sitharaman heads an economic task force announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week to plan a response to the imminent financial crisis that Covid-19 may bring to India. The country entered a 21-day period of complete lockdown on Wednesday in a bid to break the chain of transmission of the highly contagious coronavirus.