Even as India has entered the final week of the 21-day lockdown, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 23, the coronavirus positive cases have crossed the 5,000-mark. PM Modi on Wednesday said lockdown will not be lifted in one go.

Share Market Live

NSE

Speaking at an all-party meet, the Prime Minister said the government was studying options to extend the lockdown beyond April 14. Industry body CII has recommended a phased re-start of economic activities, along with stimulus measures.

In its submission to the Centre, the CII has recommended cash transfers worth Rs 2 lakh crore to support the lowest strata and the informal sector. It has also batted for enhanced credit limits for working capital to all industries. Besides that, the industry body suggested additional reconstruction term loans for MSMEs and stressed sectors.

Another key recommendation from the CII is creation of Rs 30,000 crore fund to pre-empt bank failures. The CII has also said all facilities that re-open should ensure social distancing, screening and sanitisation and this should be done on a self-certification basis.

It has suggested steps to facilitate seamless movement of goods and services such as e-passes for drivers and ensuring no harassment at check posts.

The CII has advised an aggressive campaign to bring migrant workers back. It has recommended e-passes, special transport and insurance for migrant workers.

On this issue, Shereen Bhan in talked to Chandrajit Banerjee , director general, CII, Janmejaya Sinha, chairman, CII National Committee on Financial Inclusion and Digitisation and chairman of India at the Boston Consulting Group India, Naushad Forbes, former President, CII, co-chairman, CII Economic Affairs Council, chairman of International Council and also the co-chairman of Forbes Marshall, Pawan Goenka, chairman, CII Manufacturing Council and managing director, Mahindra & Mahindra.

Naushad Forbes said, “First of all we are talking about support, we are not actually talking about a stimulus. The support we are talking about is at two levels, it is at the level of individuals who are for example self-employed so the Rs 1.7 lakh crore programme that was announced by finance minister around 10 days ago it is addresses an increase in NREGA wages, it addresses women self-help groups, it addresses some direct benefit transfers to those below the poverty line individuals and it addresses transfers for farmers.”

Self-employed people are difficult to actually target in our country because it is difficult to identify them, Forbbes added.

There is no easily identifiable collective group, so we have recommended Rs 2 lakh package for people who are JAM account holders, he explained.

“The second aspect of support that we are talking about is for enterprises. The enterprises support that we are talking about is very specific. We are saying support companies with relatively lower interest loans, 4-5 percent interest loans that will be provided through the banking system and would cover three months salaries of companies.”

Pawan Goenka said, “One of the things that the government has to look at very carefully in how do we ensure that the rabi crop harvesting happens properly, the kharif crop sowing, soil preparations happens properly, for which we need to look at the equipment such as tractors, implements, harvesters they have to be easily available and both on rental as well as for buying.”

"Coming to the auto side, in all of this as we have been talking for the last several days among CII members with the government authorities that liquidity is coming out as the biggest concern that the industry will have. Liquidity not just for the OEMs but for suppliers, dealers and for the whole chain.”

Janmejaya Sinha said, “There are issues about misery alleviation, there are issues around survival and then there is winning the piece. I think we need to keep these three buckets in our mind."

"There is misery alleviation for people who are losing livelihoods, who need to get food, in countries which are hot you need to get food, medicine and then shelter and we need to start providing it. Then there are industries that need to survive and for which we need packages."

"Right now, India is at the very low end of percentage of GDP in terms of its package and there will be a couple of packages that will come through this crisis. Then there will be policies that we will need to win the piece which will be the important thing which will happen immediately after an antiviral is found."

"This will end once we have an antiviral. The vaccine may take time but the moment the fear of death goes away we will be back and I imagine that it will not be too long, it will be 3 months or so after which we will be quite well advanced with an antiviral.”

Chandrajit Banerjee said, “We have been saying that much before April 15, we need a communication from the government as to what it is going to look like because you can't start production overnight, you need some timeframe. So, what we have been saying is that start by having a phased restart using a dashboard type of an approach."

"The government should create a dashboard to monitor the various curves of different cities and states and also the restart calendar for cities and states. "

"The progress in terms of the proportion of manpower allowed to get back to work should be based on these dashboards. If we are able to provide them good shelter, good food and good hygiene, it is important for them to get back to work rather than sitting at a place where they are not doing anything at all and there is no food for them either."

"So, we need to see how we can have a phased restart and especially in sectors of mass employment with proper safeguards and hygiene."

Therefore, manufacturing, ecommerce, construction, alongside logistics, need to be facilitated keeping in mind the green, amber and the red zones.”

First Published:Apr 8, 2020 11:30 PM IST