Owing to the COVID-19 crisis that has resulted in a 21-day lockdown, the Indian economy has been adversely affected. Most businesses are predicting fall in revenues, profits and demand. According to a CEOs’ Snap Poll conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), 52 per cent of the 200 odd CEOs who participated in the survey, expect huge job losses in their respective sectors. About 47 per cent of the organisations expect less than 15 per cent job losses, while 32 per cent predict a job loss of 15 to 30 per cent post lockdown period.
A significant number of CEOs expect the revenues of their organisations to drop by over 10 per cent and profits to dip by over five per cent in the present quarter (Apr-Jun 2020) as well as the preceding quarter (Jan-Mar 2020). Inventories are lying idle in most companies right now. Also, even after the lockdown is lifted, these businesses believe that more than 40 per cent of their stocks will last beyond a month. This means, these businesses expect the demand to be quite slow post the lockdown.
Even companies engaged in producing essential products and supplying ancillary goods are facing challenges, such as lack of access to manpower and restrictions in movement of goods. Similar challenges are being faced in the manufacturing, warehousing, transport and retail sales of these essential commodities as well.
