Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday extended the coronavirus lockdown until May 3. The initial 21-day lockdown was in place until April 14.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD of Biocon, Sangita Reddy, president of FICCI, Keki Mistry CEO of HDFC, Sharad Kumar Saraf, president of FIEO and Harsh Mariwala, chairman of Marico, expressed their views on the prime minister’s address to the nation.

Shaw said that the government has made the right decision in extending the lockdown as the number of cases in the country has been spiralling.

“This is an important and right decision taken because there is a spike in the number of cases that we are registering and this is not the time to relax norms.

“Therefore, I am glad that the norms have been tightened even further; people were beginning to take it easy and we were seeing a spread of COVID-19 in certain hotspots. The prime minister’s ‘saptapadi’ said it all. It’s a tryst with destiny to see how quickly we can overcome this virus,” she added.

On the government's relief measures, Reddy said: “There will clearly be some announcements, the PM clearly said that he is very concerned about the most vulnerable sections of the society and the poor. His ability to reach out and connect with individuals is the biggest strength of the country because this is not just a war fought by government officials and healthcare workers, this is a war that every single individual has to sign up for and this was the right kind of messaging.”

Modi in his adress urged companies to retain their workforces and abstain from laying people off. Reddy said that the companies may resort to wage cuts in a bid to comply with the PM's directive.

“I think the direction to say hold on to people and if necessary may be there will be some level of reduction in wages rather than letting people go, that may be the strategy that many corporates will follow from this month onwards and it is possibly something which is required to keep those corporates alive but for the MSMEs there is an urgent need – step one is to give that comfort to say yes, we are going to take care and two is to start some level of money flowing into the system, both are very important and urgent requirements.”

Modi during his speech said that there could be some relaxation April 20 onwards based on the extent of the spread of coronavirus.

Mistry said, “My sense is that the PM obviously knows what is happening in the economy. He has extended the lockdown till May 3 and all of us respect that and all of us will follow it. April 20 announcement – my sense is that there will be a calibrated reopening of the economy in some sense.

"What exactly will get reopened on April 20 or thereafter, we will have to wait and see. Certain industries which are critical, which are necessary, which are very relevant, very important in this environment, there will be some kind of a calibrated reopening that we will see on that. The critical thing at this point in time is to ensure that there is enough liquidity in the system, that is the role that RBI has played so far and I would think that they will continue playing that role.”

Saraf expressed his disappointment at the lack of any announcement on opening up the economy, which has come to a halt owing to the lockdown.

Saraf said, “The Prime Minister showed great compassion and empathy for the health of the citizens which is very well appreciated. His view that the lockdown needs to be continued till May 3 is also well understood, but I am very disappointed that a calibrated approach for opening up an economy has not been announced.

“The prime minister did mention about the economic cost that we are bearing and he mentioned that there is a need for restarting the economy but he has shifted the goal post from tomorrow to April 20. According to me this is very disappointing. Even Spain which is far worse hit has opened its economy in a small calculated manner. There was a need to open the economy in some small manner,” he added.

Mariwala said: “The government has given preference to protecting lives over livelihood for the short term, he wants to see what is happening and wait and watch for this next one week.

"In terms of FMCG, I think for essentials supplies we are allowed to manufacture and supply but there are lot of issues in terms of supply chain, transport availability, godowns, people to come and manufacture, the labour availability.

"So all of us are grappling with this and we are still not operating at anywhere near full capacity. We have huge orders, we also have stocks but we just cannot transfer and that is the key issue, which the government is trying to tackle with, there is an improvement but much more needs to be done on that front.”

First Published:Apr 14, 2020 3:11 PM IST