Amid the COVID-19 crisis, economic slowdown, cyclone Amphan and Locust attack business leaders are very optimistic that the economy will revive by next year, thanks to the resilience shown by the people and effective government policies.
Recently, CII organized a webinar on ‘New Normal: Impact of COVID-19 on Business and Economy’ elucidating worst scenario possibilities.
The webinar was attended by eminent business leaders; Aditya Birla, chairman, CII Delhi & co-promoter Apeejay Stya & Svran Group, Rajan Mathews, DG, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), Sujit Baksi, head- APAC business & president, corporate affairs at Tech Mahindra NSE 0.14 %, Prativa Mohapatra, VP Sales at IBM India/South Asia and Prashant Solomon, managing director, Chintels India & hon’ble treasurer, CREDAI NCR. The panellist discussed the importance of telecom and IT companies is a vital key to survive and get past a difficult time. Speakers across the industry highlighted the silver lining in the worst of the time, they speak out suggestive measures for the stakeholders and government to mitigate the crisis.
Aditya Birla, Chairman- CII Delhi, co-promoter Apeejay Stya and Svrán Group congratulated the government for taking bold steps to fight the crisis. He is expecting 5 t 10% contraction in the economy in coming days depending on the industry and areas of operation. He believes the situation will become normal in a few months after the lock-down get lifted. Rajan Mathews, DG, COAI believes the government should focus on future tackling strategies so that we can handle an unprecedented situation like this in the coming future.
Sujit Baksi, head, APAC business and president & corporate affairs, Tech Mahindra is very optimistic and see this as an opportunity for our industry to change the way of working and enhanced engagement with the telecom sector, which has emerged as a lifeline. He is confident that the IT industry will bounce back in the second half of the financial year. Prativa Mohapatra, VP Sales at IBM India/South Asia said there needs to be an added impetus on close monitoring of projects across residential and commercial sectors and post moratorium options. The COVID-19 crisis has led to a major upheaval in the way industries used to function, and the new normal will, hopefully, enable a more robust and future-ready model.
According to the Barclays report, India’s GDP growth for the calendar year 2020 would be 0.0 per cent, and FY21 growth would be a mere 0.8 per cent. It added that the economic impact appears to be worse than expected as India has headed into a longer complete shutdown to combat the rising number of COVID-19 cases. UN earlier predicted India will dodge the recession, however, the bold move to lock-down the entire nation compelled UN to release fresh estimated which suggest he country’s economy may even sharply contract in the current financial year, let alone grow at a slow pace.
Undoubtedly, the situation is very critical and requires a lot of brainstorming in the coming months to find an effective way to minimize the damage and at the same time rejuvenate the economy. Will the situation get under control? Probably to earlier to say.
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