Anil Agarwal, chairman, Vedanta talking about the impact of coronavirus on global commodities and business, said, “Definitely this is a very challenging time for the world because a lot was depending on China. I think entire leadership of the world has come into the action and they are doing whatever is necessary."

"Nothing is being held back, minute by minute they are adjusting themselves and I have a feeling that it is in hand of nature or almighty - we have no control over that. Whatever we can control, the world will do," he said, adding that in the process, India is in a better position. Whatever is being manufactured in India is being sold in India. We have a huge home consumption, which is a great advantage. We have got logistics and supply chain which is not much dependent on the world. So, we are little bit isolated.

“Indian people are in a good position. Out of 15 best companies in the world, 9 are run by Indians. Indian minds are good and I am sure this will give advantage to India. For coronavirus nobody has a solution, the only thing is not to panic - our Prime Minister has said not to panic and see how we can safeguard ourselves,” he added.

Speaking about how Vedanta is dealing with slowdown and the cost of production, Agarwal said, “Oil has come down almost 50 percent. Definitely a lot of companies will shut their door and some of the people who are strong can cut their cost. Out of 100 companies, 50-60 will remain, 30-40 will go away."

"In India, we have a different position. As far as Vedanta is concerned, we have a home market and we have a cost advantage. We are looking to tighten our cost. We have a process of reducing our cost upto 20 percent whether from the mining or the logistics. As far as Vedanta is concerned, we still make 10 percent profit. We are not going to stop any of our growth projects because that will increase our production to 40-50 percent. I see India at a different position than the rest of the world,” he said.

In terms of virus impact, he further mentioned, “We are tightening our belt. We are looking to reduce our costs. For the world, I will go with what the analysts are saying but India demand will continue to be there. We used to import a lot of things from China but India has a capability and entrepreneurship – this is the time when government should support manufacturing in India. So that we can have more manufacturing units, job creation and eradicate our poverty.”

When asked for his interested list of companies, he said, “I encourage to invest in India. This is a great opportunity, Vedanta will also look at it but this is an opportunity for the world oil company to look at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and take the advantage of this time."

"Vedanta will also look at Air India. For NMDC - as far as Vedanta is concerned, we will do expression of interest (EoI) if we qualify and then look at what is the benefit,” he said.