India will now be under lockdown till May 17 with a complete ban on air travel, trains and inter-state road transport for the general public while educational institutions, theatres, malls, hotels and bars will also remain shut, the government announced on Friday but gave some relaxations for various business activities and people's movement within areas with limited or no COVID-19 cases.
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The decision to extend the lockdown by two more weeks after May 3, when the second phase of these restrictions was scheduled to end, came amid a continuous rise in the number of people testing positive for the deadly virus infection across various states, including in major metropolitans, with the nationwide tally crossing 35,000. The death toll has crossed 1,100.
So how has India Inc coped under the two lockdowns and what does the future hold? CNBC-TV18 in association with industry body CII has conducted an extensive survey of 250 CEOs to catch the pulse of India Inc.
Here is some colour on who exactly was polled. 46 percent of the CEOs polled are from organisations that have an annual turnover of below Rs 100 crore. The other 54 percent are from companies with turnover of anywhere between Rs 100 crore to over Rs 5,000 crore.
Now to the findings. Most CEOs are not expecting normalcy to return to business operations any time soon. Majority of over 54 percent expect normalcy only in 6 months to a year. Over 29 percent are expecting a longer timeframe of over a year.
CEOs are also expecting a significant hit to business this year. A majority of over 50 percent are estimating topline to fall by over 25 percent - another 38 percent are expecting double-digit drop in revenues but below 25 percent.
Despite this significant impact on business, a majority of 71 percent CEOs say layoffs are "not imminent" as things stand. But salary cuts could be on the cards. 28 percent CEOs have ruled out any immediate salary cuts, 34 percent have said that wage cuts are imminent and majority 37 percent are not sure about it at this stage.
In an interview with CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan, Rajnish Kumar, chairman of State Bank of India; Zarin Daruwala, CEO at Standard Chartered Bank; Hari Bhartia, former president of CII and co-chairman and MD at Jubilant Lifesciences and Chandrajit Banerjee, director general at CII discussed more on the extension of the lockdown, the impact on industry as well as road ahead