Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is addressing the media on the economic issues facing the country. Her press conference comes at a time when the country’s GDP or gross domestic product contracted a record 23.9 per cent in the April-June period as the quarter fully captured the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic-related restrictions, and is expected to shrink an overall 9.5 per cent in the current financial year by the Reserve Bank of India. Economists and analysts await any positive signs in the economy to assess the path of economic revival ahead. The government is currently in the process of gradually lifting restrictions imposed in late-March to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus, which has sent an already slowing economy marred by low demand into a standstill. The Finance Minister’s press conference comes ahead of a meeting of the GST or Goods and Services Tax Council due later in