As India's COVID cases spike and several states impose fresh restrictions, we look at the hit to manufacturing and industry with Subhrakant Panda, Vice President of FICCI, also the MD of Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys, and Sandip Somany, VC and MD of Somany Impresa Group and former FICCI President.

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“The slowdown is not severe yet but if these lockdowns continue for a length of time then you will see at least 25-30 percent demand destruction in the very near future,” said Somany.

“For industry, the situation on the ground is not currently very bad but it can turn very bad in two weeks’ time because more and more states are going for complete lockdown which is much worse. A lot of the small scale productions can get closed,” Somany added.

Somany believes as long as COVID protocols are followed, the non-continuous process plants should also be allowed to work all over the country.

“There should be no difference made in essential goods and non-essential goods. When e-commerce companies are allowed to deliver essential goods, they should also be allowed to deliver non-essential goods,” Somany mentioned.

“Metal sector has probably a few cutbacks at the moment because they are looking to divert oxygen to medical requirements but these are all continuous process industries and it is not possible to just flip a switch and go completely cold and divert the entire oxygen but certainly a little bit of cutback is what I understand so as to make maximum oxygen available to meet the medical requirements,” Panda said.

For the entire conversation, watch the video

(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)