In an indication of monetary recovery, the Indian Railways on Monday posted higher cargo stacking without precedent for this money related year.
The national carrier took care of 3.13 million tons (mt) cargo on July 27, up 0.3 percent contrasted with 3.12 mt around the same time last monetary year.
This ascent comes after a calm time of over five months in the cargo section inferable from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Then again, for the current monetary year, the cargo traffic took care of between April 1 and July 27 remained at 322.69 mt, down 18 percent, contrasted with a similar period a year ago.
"This is an indication of financial restoration. We have made such a significant number of strides during this emergency time to accomplish this. This incorporates fulfillment of 200 framework works that were stuck during this time. Likewise, the normal speed of cargo trains expanded to a normal of 45 kmph this month, contrasted with 23 kmph before the lockdown," Railway Board Chairman V K Yadav told the media on Tuesday.
He said the Railways was focusing in any event 50 percent higher stacking, contrasted with a year ago.
In 2019-20, Railways had detailed a decrease in cargo traffic without precedent for a long time to 1,210.46 mt, down 1 percent more than 2018-19.
With reviving of the economy and youngsters coming back to class a half year since the destructive infection was first revealed in the United States, US President Donald Trump despite everything needs to recapture control on the emergency activated by the pandemic in an offer to fix an appointive triumph in November, which runs straightforwardly through the soundness of his country.
As per The Washington Post, Trump's weaknesses have astounded even a portion of his most faithful partners, who progressively have asked why the president has not at any rate emulated a feeling of order over the emergency or passed on empathy for the a huge number of Americans hurt by it.
A portion of his partners and adversaries have even concurred that the President has fizzled at the one undertaking that could assist him with accomplishing every one of his objectives - going up against the pandemic with a reasonable methodology and predictable authority.
Individuals near Trump, many talking on state of secrecy, opined that the President's failure to entirely address the emergency is because of his practically neurotic reluctance to concede blunder; a positive input circle of excessively blushing appraisals and information from consultants and Fox News.
Lately, with in excess of 145,000 Americans now dead from the infection, the White House has endeavored to update - or possibly rejigger - its methodology. The organization has resuscitated news briefings drove by Trump and gave the President projections indicating how the infection is presently destroying Republican states brimming with his voters.
For some, in any case, the inquiry is the reason Trump didn't alter sooner, understanding that the way to about the entirety of his objectives - from a financial recuperation to a constituent triumph in November - runs legitimately through a sound country in charge of the infection.
The progressing disengage between budgetary markets and the genuine economy is a defenselessness which could represent a danger to the recuperation should financial specialist hazard hunger blur, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.
Significant national banks the world over have added to a considerable facilitating of money related conditions by means of loan fee cuts and a monetary record development of more than six trillion dollars including resource buys, remote trade lines, and credit and liquidity offices, as per the IMF update on its April Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR).
"These quick and phenomenal activities by national banks have reestablished certainty and helped speculator hazard taking," said Tobias Adrian, Financial Counselor and Director of the IMF's Monetary and Capital Markets Department, and Deputy Director Fabio Natalucci.
"After sharp decreases in February and March, value markets have revitalized back, sometimes to near their January levels, while credit spreads have limited fundamentally, in any event, for more dangerous ventures," the IMF authorities wrote in a blog on Thursday (nearby time) taking note of that there has been an evident detach between money related markets and financial possibilities.
"Financial specialists appear to be wagering that enduring solid help from national banks will continue a snappy recuperation even as monetary information point to a more profound than-anticipated downturn," said Adrian and Natalucci.
The distinction between money related markets and the genuine economy can be delineated by the ongoing decoupling between the taking off US value advertises and plunging shopper certainty, bringing up issues about the convention's supportability notwithstanding the lift gave by national banks, they said.
The IMF authorities noticed that this uniqueness raises the ghost of another rectification in hazard resource costs should speculators' mentality change, representing a danger to the recuperation.
Confronting request compression in the local market, Hindalco Industries is sending out more than 80 percent of its yield. The coronavirus pandemic has managed a body hit to residential aluminum utilization that contracted six percent year-on-year (y-o-y) to 3.72 million tons (mt) during FY20. In Q4 of last monetary, the decay was more honed at 11 percent.
"We are trading more than 80 percent of our complete yield to nations like Korea, USA, Malaysia, Brazil, Japan, while limiting our stock develop and engrossing the plant fixed expenses. Our aluminum downstream plants in India had closed down at first, with the exception of at two plants, while other downstream offices kept on working and serve fundamental area clients", said Satish Pai, overseeing executive, Hindalco Industries at the organization's ongoing income phone call.
Pai said Hindalco's four aluminum smelters and the Utkal alumina treatment facility (in Odisha) ran at close to full limit in any event, during lockdown. The hostage coal and bauxite mines likewise worked at standard scale.
Hindalco has restarted downstream tasks at shortened abilities to satisfy the current market need. After introductory impermanent shutdowns, the organization possessed copper smelters have continued and are presently settling to arrive at ideal levels. Among its abroad activities, brief or fractional shutdowns were taken up at Novelis car plants over the districts in light of contracting request or by government order.
Telecom administrator Bharti Airtel has chosen to pay May pay rates of almost 30,000 staff members utilized by its retail and conveyance accomplices, to assist them with holding over "extreme occasions" and effect of the lockdown during the month, according to a note by the organization to the accomplices.
The organization had made a comparable stride before additionally, to pay for April pay rates of those utilized by its dispersion accomplices and retail franchisee arrange.
In the note, seen by PTI, Manu Sood, Hub CEO (Upper North) of Bharti Airtel, stated, "We as a whole are experiencing a remarkable circumstance and with the lockdown that got stretched out for the long periods of April and May, we have just observed a great deal of effect on our business. This disturbance additionally brought about drop in business across numerous different segments and classes in much more regrettable manners."
He saw that the telecom business is going about as a facilitator in keeping the country and its clients associated "during these extreme occasions". Sood oozed certainty that things will standardize soon and that the organization will "spring back and win in the commercial center".
Airtel will be paying the essential pay rates of more than 30,000 workers of accomplices for May 2020, a move planned for helping representatives and groups of channel accomplices tide over the effect of lockdown that got reached out till end of May.
"We comprehend this all-inclusive lockdown has likewise diminished your profits during May, as it was for the long stretch of April. So as to assist you with holding over this extreme time, as in the long stretch of April, we are expanding a one-time support for the period of May too," Sood said.
The organization has, in like manner, encouraged the accomplices to spend the base regularly scheduled compensation to all their staff for May.
What does a town shopper drawing power from decentralized vitality frameworks (DES) do when the Covid-19 incited lockdown hits his paying limit? State governments, similar to Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, have taken activities of not charging fixed bit of intensity levy from large clients however those associated with DES think that its difficult to purchase power bundles when their pay stream has definitely diminished.
To beat this issue and forestall long haul request demolition for vitality gracefully organizations brought forth by it, Smart Power India (SPI), an activity of Rockefeller Foundation, has started a voucher framework for power customers in 32 towns of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. In addition, SPI is taking a gander at a different credit extension through smaller scale account establishments (MFIs) for altered advance of up to Rs 20,000 for country clients.
For the principal month beginning June 1, SPI is giving force buy vouchers to clients of ESCOs that work DES. These vouchers will pay 75 percent of their month to month power bill in June, 50 percent in July and another 25 percent in August. "Assortments were dropping, so we did a gathering of all smaller than normal matrix administrators. We said they should proceed with administration whether installment is made or not and be in contact with clients telephonically," Jaideep Mukherjee, CEO, SPI, revealed to Business Standard.
He said they needed to comprehend two things; the reasons buyers need to proceed with purchasing power from DES was dependability of gracefully and furthermore their prerequisite past power.
SPI directed review alongside its five ESCOs in towns of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. "We perceive what has befallen the country economy. While family request proceeded, organizations were gravely affected and didn't have a lot of money close by," he said. The overview secured three clients sections - family, shops and business foundations to comprehend the effect of Covid-19 lockdown.
Mukherjee said power request from family units and public venues proceeded. Despite the fact that schools and public venues were closed, near 10-12 of them out of in excess of 50 that get power from SPI's five ESCOs are being utilized as isolate offices. These offices can suit around 100 individuals at any one given point in time. Town locals moving back from urban areas are housed in these communities for isolate.
A day after the Delhi High Court communicated anguish over the build-up in discarding the dead groups of Covid-19 casualties, the AAP government educated that it has broadened the working long periods of crematoriums. The accumulation is aftereffect of non-working of CNG heaters at the crematoriums in Delhi
Presently rather than 9 a.m. to 4 p.m, they will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Delhi government told the court that the LNJP medical clinic is being approved to redirect bodies to crematoriums at Panchkuian and Punjab Bagh, instead of just Nigambodh Ghat.
"Pressing advances were taken to cure the circumstance like expanding the working hours of the crematorium so as to clear the excess," said advocate Sanjoy Ghose showing up for the Delhi government.
The entries came in while the court was hearing an issue identifying with the absence of offices to incinerate the individuals who passed on due to Covid-19 and the bodies accumulating in the morgues.
A Division Bench of the high court involving Justices Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Asha Menon took suo moto perception of the issue on Thursday and changed over it into a Public Interest Litigation.
Approved wood-terminated customary incinerations, notwithstanding electric and CNG heaters, have been permitted to capacity and PPE units for all laborers, just as bodies, have likewise been made accessible, the administration told the court.
It further educated that 28 bodies were discarded on May 28, and by May 30, the staying 35 bodies will be discarded. "Just those bodies will be held back where after death/examinations are to be done," the administration said.
Following the entries, the court requested that the AAP government record a status report by June 2.
Communicating disappointment and outrage while observing the circumstance, the court on Thursday stated, "We, as residents of Delhi are tormented at the previously mentioned situation and as judges discover the circumstance as revealed and assuming valid, to be exceptionally dissatisfactory and violative of the privileges of the dead."
Staying up with the continuous facilitating of the covid-19 lockdown in non-hotspot zones, the Uttar Pradesh government has restarted street and scaffold ventures totalling more than Rs 31,400 crore up until this point.
While the restoration of these foundation ventures will cultivate their auspicious fulfillment, it will likewise support the neighborhood economy, particularly in the background of the substantial inundation of returning transient specialists.
These ventures, totalling 1,900, fall under the ambit of the UP open works office (PWD), UP Bridge Corporation and Rajkiya Nirman Nigam (RNN), with complete labor organization of around 28,000.
"These ventures will advance financial turn of events and create work open doors for the workers, particularly vagrants," UP vice president serve Keshav Prasad Maurya said here. Up until now, more than 2.5 million transients have just come back to the state.
He watched street availability is critical to the quick development of products and material over the state, in this way assuming a significant job in supporting the rustic ventures and smaller scale, little and medium undertakings (MSME) when the lockdown has disturbed the general economy to an enormous degree.
The state PWD division represents the a lot of 1,539 activities totalling Rs 13,660 crore and utilizing 19,500 workers, trailed by RNN dealing with 241 undertakings costing about Rs 13,260 crore and utilizing 5,800 workers. The rest of the tasks fall under the domain of the UP Bridge Corporation.
Congress pioneer Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the four periods of across the country lockdown have "fizzled" and not given the outcomes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi anticipated.
Tending to a question and answer session in Delhi, he requested that the focal government explain its procedure most definitely and how it plans to help vagrants and states.
"What is the focal government's arrangement to go ahead as the infection is developing exponentially in the nation," he inquired.
"The four phases of lockdown have not given the outcome that the Prime Minister expected," he stated, including that it is quite evident that the point and motivation behind lockdowns have bombed in India.
"India is the main nation on the planet which is loosening up the lockdown when the infection is 'exponentially rising'," he noted.
The Uttar Pradesh government will raise bank loans totalling Rs 9,275 crore to part fund two mega expressway projects.
The two infrastructure projects – Bundelkhand Expressway and Gorakhpur Link Expressway – are estimated to cost Rs 15,000 crore and Rs 4,600 crore, respectively.
According to UP Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) CEO and state additional chief secretary Awanish Kumar Awasthi, the expressway projects will play a major role in boosting the local economy and generate employment for the migrant labourers returning from other states.
Following covid-19 lockdown in March 2020, the work on these projects had come to a standstill. However, the work resumed last month in all such pending projects, also including Purvanchal Expressway, which is estimated to cost nearly Rs 23,000 crore.
Chairing a review meeting here, Awasthi recently asked the commercial banks to expedite the process of approval to the bank loan proposal submitted by UPEIDA, the nodal agency for the expressways.
Meanwhile, Bank of Baroda has approved bank loan worth Rs 2,000 crore for the Bundelkhand Expressway project, while the process of forming a consortium of banks was underway.
Besides, Rs 700 crore worth of loan has also been sanctioned by the Union Bank of India, and the commercial banks are now in the process of granting sanction to the remaining portion of the loans worth Rs 6,575 crore.
On February 29, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation of 296 km Bundelkhand Expressway at a village in Chitrakoot district and observed the development of UP depended upon connectivity and that the Yogi Adityanath government was working at the speed of expressways, obliquely referring to the mega expressways.
Bundelkhand Expressway will link Chitrakoot, Banda, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Auraiya and Etawah districts. Last year, the state had awarded the six packages of the Expressway to the selected bidders, including Apco Infratech, Ashoka Buildcon, Gawar Construction and Dilip Buildcon.
So far, UPEIDA has acquired a major portion of the required 3,641 hectares for the project. It will connect Bundelkhand with the national capital region (NCR) via Agra-Lucknow and Yamuna expressways. The project would start near Bharatkoop at Jhansi-Allahabad National Highway (NH) 35 in Chitrakoot district and terminate near village Kudrail, Etawah on Agra-Lucknow Expressway.
State-owned banks have sanctioned about Rs 6.45 trillion worth loans to various sectors including Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), agriculture and retail between March 1 and May 15 when businesses were reeling under the impact of the Covid-19 crisis.
Loans sanctioned at the end of May 8 stood at Rs 5.95 trillion.
"Loans worth over Rs 6.45 trillion were sanctioned by PSBs during March 1 May 15 for 54.96 lakh accounts from MSME, Retail, Agriculture & Corporate sectors; A notable increase compared to the Rs 5.95 trillion sanctioned as of May 8," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a tweet.
"Public Sector Banks sanctioned over Rs 1.03 trillion as emergency credit lines & working capital enhancements in the period March 20 to May 15, which is a substantial increase over the Rs 65,879 crore that had been sanctioned up to May 8," she said.
State-owned banks launched an emergency credit line to provide funds to its existing MSME and corporate borrowers in the last week of March, soon after the lockdown was announced.
Under the scheme, the banks provide an additional line of credit of 10 per cent of the existing fund based on working capital limits, subject to a maximum of Rs 200 crore.
India has provided medical supplies to over 120 countries to combat the coronavirus pandemic, out of which 43 countries received it as a grant, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said during the G-20 trade ministers session on Thursday.
Goyal participated during the second G20 Virtual Trade and Investment Ministers Meeting.
"We offer full support to any global engagements to further this cause. Staying true to our tradition of 'Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam' -- the world is one big family. India has unconditionally provided medical supplies to over 120 countries to combat this disease, of which 43 countries received it as a grant. We are also sharing our medical and public health expertise and capacity with them, using digital technologies," said Goyal.
During his intervention, Goyal called upon the G20 nations to ensure access to essential medicines, treatments and vaccines at affordable prices.
He said that the unprecedented situation calls for solidarity and a balanced, inclusive and calibrated response. "An overriding priority for all countries at this time is to save precious lives," the minister added.
Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee has said that there is no certainty that India will gain from shifting of businesses from China in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking to a Bengali news channel ABP Ananda on Monday evening, Banerjee said that everyone is blaming China for the Covid-19 outbreak as it has origin there. "China is being blamed now for the coronavirus outbreak. Even people are saying that India stands to benefit as businesses will shift from China and come to India. But that may not be true," the economist said.
Banerjee, who is also a member of the Global Advisory Board formed by the West Bengal government to prepare a roadmap for Covid-19 response in the state, said, "What happens if China depreciates its currency. In that case, Chinese products will be cheaper and people will continue to buy their products".
Talking about the proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) planned to be spent by the Centre for a relief package, Banerjee said countries like the US, UK and Japan are spending a high share of their respective GDPs. "India plans to spend less than one per cent of its GDP at Rs 1.70 trillion. We should spend a much-increased proportion of GDP," he said.
The Centre had announced a more than Rs 1.70 trillion package to alleviate the hardship of the poor hit by economic disruption due to coronavirus outbreak. The Economics Nobel Prize winner said that the main problem is that people of the country do not have high purchasing power.
India’s first tender to provide round-the-clock (RTC) solar power was won last week by Goldman Sachs-promoted ReNew Power, which quoted a tariff of Rs 2.9 per unit (kwh) for the complete capacity of 400 Mw offered by the government.
The tender is unique in several ways. Unlike the nature of solar to run for a few day-time hours, this project would provide power for 24 hours. For this purpose, the tender had proposed that solar power would either be blended with other sources such as wind or hydro, or would have an energy storage system. To include that cost in the project, the tender provided for 3 per cent escalation in the tariff annually for 15 years. Industry experts said the average tariff would land around Rs 3.6 per unit.
Speaking with Business Standard, Sumant Sinha, Founder & CEO, ReNew Power said the tariff quoted for the project is not high, rather it is very competitive. “I would say the number (average tariff) is lower than what you what you are mentioning (Rs 3.6/unit). To provide that kind of firmness of power, you do have consider certain issues that you have to take care of,” he said.
At Rs 3.6 per unit, the tariff is closer to the average rate of thermal power in India. This RTC tender was floated by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to supply power from solar power plant all around the day. SECI is the nodal tendering agency under the ministry of new and renewable energy. The project will have 80 per cent plant load factor (operational capacity).
Sinha further added, “For example, procurers won’t buy more than 100 per cent power from you. But in the designing of the plant, you end up with times when the power generation is more than 100 per cent. We have to account for conditions such as these. That is why the tariff has been so aggressive. But it was quite lower than what the government was expecting,” Sinha said.
He also said the capital cost of most companies is higher than what regulators assume in their calculations. This therefore increases the discounting rate that the companies take. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) in the tariff determination of renewable power, provide for a discounting rate, which is the ‘post-tax weighted average cost of capital’ or the cost of capital over the period of the project. This rate is higher than the capital cost and is added to the total bid amount quoted by a company.
The Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur (IIT-K) will work with defence public sector undertaking (PSU) Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) to manufacture ventilators needed in India's medical response to the coronavirus pandemic.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between BDL, IIT Kanpur’s incubator Foundation for Innovation and Research in Science and Technology (FIRST) and Nocca Robotics Private Limited (NRPL), which is an incubated startup of the Institute.
“Our project for developing an affordable ventilator has been going from strength to strength and now with Bharat Dynamics supporting us, we will be able to scale up production and make this device widely available as a ‘Make in India’ product,” IIT Kanpur director Abhay Karandikar said.
He invited more enterprises to join hands with the IIT Kanpur to encourage indigenous design and development.
“Together, we will strive for our best to serve the nation at this critical hour,” BDL chairman and managing director Commodore Siddharth Mishra (Retd) said while lauding the IIT Kanpur engineers for the indigenous technology.
Responding to the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nocca Robotics designed and developed a high-end yet affordable indigenous ventilator for providing life support to critically ill covid-19 patients under the supervision of IIT Kanpur team led by Prof Amitabha Bandyopadhyay.
Apart from providing support to critical patients, the ventilator’s design has unique features to safeguard frontline healthcare workers from exposure to the virus.
Demand for domestic steel seems to be reviving in some way, with end users taking the first steps towards restarting operations, but a return to normalcy might still be a long way off.
In the past couple of days, a number of automakers, including Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, Mercedes Benz India, Eicher Motors, TVS Motor, and Isuzu Motors India, have announced they have got clearance from the government to resume operations. Construction activities, too, have resumed, albeit in a staggered manner. In some pockets there is also demand for yellow goods. No doubt, between Lockdown 1.0 and 3.0, there has been an improvement in demand, but steel companies view this as too little.
Typically, construction accounts for 60-62 per cent of steel end-use and automobile 15-16 per cent. The demand that is coming back is mostly from auto components, fabricators and some government projects, say steel producers. But they point out that it's not just a restart of activity at end-user level that is required; the value chain, which has completely collapsed, needs to be reconstructed for a significant pick-up in demand.
ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS) has restarted many of its production units, including COREX, Conarc, hot strip mill, compact strip mill to ramp up production. Production at blast furnace, too, has been ramped up in line with demand.
But a further increase in production is riddled with challenges. A spokesperson for AM/NS India cited normalising supply chain and production ramp-up at customer end as major challenges.
Officials at Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) said things were starting to move. Customer meets were being held. But most of the demand currently was from government segments. "Availability of labour remains a challenge," said an official.
Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) Managing Director V R Sharma pointed out that steel markets were still closed. "The MSMEs need to be allowed to function without permission."
Doctors in Mumbai are scrambling for new and experimental treatment protocol to ensure faster recovery of patients, with the city emerging as the epicentre of India’s Covid crisis.
This is a race against time to develop health care infrastructure, given the city is fast running out of dedicated Covid-19 isolation wards and intensive care units.
The city administration is pulling out all stops to create Covid-dedicated as well as intensive care beds. On the lines of Wuhan, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has begun work on a make-shift 1,000-bed mega hospital in the commercial hub of Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC).
The hospital will serve as an isolation facility for non-critical Covid-19 patients. Expected to be ready in a fortnight, the new makeshift facility can be scaled up to 5,000 beds, if needed. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will run the hospital that will have, among other things, oxygen facilities and pathological laboratories.
A task force comprising nine top doctors has been created to oversee the treatment of patients. From experimenting on biological drugs for skin ailments to rheumatoid arthritis on patients in government hospitals — they have now decided to try a new treatment protocol. Speaking to Business Standard, Sanjay Oak, member of the task force, said steroids (acting as anti-inflammatory) and low-molecular-weight heparin or LMWH (used in prevention of blood clots) will be given to patients in stage 2b of the disease (or moderate cases). Stages of the disease are mild, moderate, and severe based on symptoms, respiratory rate, and radiological findings.
Samsung on Monday announced pre-booking offers on electronic products for people who want to purchase televisions and digital appliances after a lockdown to contain the coronavirus is eased.
The South Korean electronics maker is taking orders online on Samsung Shop and seeks to get them express delivered from the Samsung Authorized Retailer as soon as deliveries are permitted. The offer applies to Samsung consumer electronics products -- televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines and smart ovens.
The company in a statement said, “As a precaution against the spread of the pandemic, Samsung has made arrangements across its retail and distribution channel, to help consumers to pre-book the products, without having to step out of their homes.”
Consumers pre-booking on Samsung Shop will get 15 per cent cashback when paying with HDFC cards. There is an options to choose no interest equated monthly instalments (no-cost EMIs) and long-term finance options, up to 18 months.
Customers are also entitled for cashback, even if they do not opt for EMI-based finance options, the company said in a statement.
According to Raju Pullan, Senior Vice President, Consumer Electronics Business, Samsung India, in the past one month, the company has received thousands of queries from consumers across the country as to how they could buy our TV or digital appliances.
"Through our pre-book offer on Samsung Shop, we want to ensure our consumers get the fastest delivery possible as per the government regulation on relaxation of lockdown from a Samsung authorised retailer nearest to them, without having to step out of their homes till normalcy returns," said Pullan.
The nationwide lockdown in April, coupled with a crash in export orders led to unprecedented contraction in manufacturing output, said the monthly Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) survey released on Monday.
On a worrying note, the survey pointed out that reduced demand led to new businesses collapsing at a record pace in April, while firms sharply pared their staff numbers.
Manufacturing PMI stood at just 27.4 in April, showing the sharpest deterioration in business conditions across the sector since data collection began over 15 years ago. In PMI parlance, a figure above 50 means expansion, while a score below that denotes contraction. PMI had already been on a downward curve, registering 51.8 in March, much below the eight-year high of 55.3 in January.
Despite industrial activity being partially opened after April 20, manufacturing activity could not resume fully as lack of labour and raw materials remained widespread while supply chains could not be established, industry bodies said. “After making it through March relatively unscathed, the Indian manufacturing sector felt the full force of the coronavirus pandemic in April,” said Elliot Kerr, economist at IHS Markit.
Tough situation
India’s overall industrial production rebounded in February to a seven-month high of 4.5 per cent, up from January’s 2 per cent. Figures for March, set to be released next week are expected to be slightly hit since lockdown began late in the month, on March 25. But it can take a bad turn given how the output of the 8-core sectors of the economy saw a record contraction of 6.5 per cent in March.
However in April, the PMI survey pointed out widespread business closures amid demand conditions remaining severely hampered. New orders fell for the first time in two-and-a-half years and at the sharpest rate in the survey's history, far outpacing that seen during the global financial crisis.
Ahead of finalising the package for industries hit by Covid-19, the Union finance ministry reviewed support extended by large public sector banks (PSBs), including via the emergency credit line, to affected firms.
State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda (BoB) have together sanctioned close to Rs 10,000 crore as immediate credit assistance to the affected units.
PSB executives said this was a regular review with top officials of large banks, including SBI. There was also discussion on working capital re-assessment.
Banks have built internal capacities for assisting companies, including micro, small & medium enterprises (MSMEs). Feedback from interactions is expected to act as an input for policies that are in works.
However, it is not clear when the package would be finalised, officials said. A SBI executive said the bank is giving these emergency loans to those in need. It does not involve elaborate scrutiny. Only thing is that borrowers have to establish the Covid impact.
