India Inc is confident that the government and companies are well-prepared to tackle the likelihood of a new Covid outbreak in the country, following the recent surge in cases in China, and do not expect any disruption to business and economy.
India Inc members told FE that chances of any lockdown is ruled out and companies have a perfect hybrid model in place for employees. Businesses like mobile, electronics, automobile, FMCG and others, which depend on Beijing for raw material, do not rule out problems in supply chain if the crisis continues for long in China. However, they said that there’s no immediate crisis as inventory position is comfortable for the next 4-6 weeks.
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“Two years of Covid has taught us and the government how to handle situations in the event of outbreak of Covid. I don’t see a situation where there would be a lockdown and business would have to shut operations,” RC Bhargava, chairman, Maruti Suzuki India, said.
Subhrakant Panda, the newly-appointed president of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), and managing director of Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys, said there is no need to panic yet but alertness is certainly called for, and that the Indian economy and corporates have the depth and resilience to withstand any short and sharp disruption to the global supply chain.
“I believe the government is on top of things,” he said recounting how the government handled the unseen pandemic – from imposing lockdowns when little was known to keep the pandemic under control to a graded reopening of the economy and finally carrying out the world’s largest vaccination drive,” he said.
“Covid-19 is not a worry as of now. Some of the raw materials are imported, but there is a pipeline in place, so we have to see how that is impacted. As of now, we do not see a reason to worry,” said Gunjan Shah, managing director and CEO, Bata India.
Tarun Pathak, research director, Counterpoint, said that restrictions in China does adversely impact mobile and electronics players here, but there is no such scenario at the moment. “Inventory levels are fine currently with companies having stocks for 4-6 weeks. If the crisis in China carries on beyond January and that too in places like Shenzen, which is the hub of supply chain activity, then there could be problems,” Pathak said.
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Further, with remote option already in place across industries, any disruption to work is also unlikely. Most offices have devised a hybrid model – working partially from office and partially remotely. With the knowledge of the drill in response to a surge of cases in the past, there will be an immediate transition to remote work if situation calls for it.
Sources in the corporate offices of companies across sectors like telecom, automobile, FMCG, steel, cement and others said the hybrid model of work is already in place and working smoothly, and there are no signs of worry.
Employees across companies like Maruti, Bharti Airtel, RPG Enterprises, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Reliance Industries, Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL), Hyundai Motor India, Mahindra and Mahindra, and Hero MotoCorp are either coming to office on all designated days or two-three days every week as per the policy laid out by their respective firms, and they are continuing with the model as of now.