While the country is preparing a partial return to work on Monday, April 20th, eight publicly listed companies have already announced that they have taken steps to restart their operations. In the next few weeks, India will be working hard to restart factories and restore the supply chain across the country, in order to get the economy up and growing again.

Cautious Measures

Finding a solution to restart the economy while, at the same time, avoiding a second wave of infection with the coronavirus, is a difficult task for all governments around the world. To do so, Indian political leaders have decided to move cautiously out of the lockdown. The return of workers to manufacturing plants and to other economic sectors will first begin in regions where no infections were reported, mostly outside urban agglomerations.

Agriculture, logistics, infrastructure and e-commerce businesses as well as factories will be able to reopen progressively. This decision was made to limit the damage to the economy that has already been caused by the pandemic. India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Its growth projection at the beginning of the year was at 5.8 %, and it has already been lowered to 1.9 % by the International Monetary Fund.

Restrictions in COVID-19 infected zones will not be lifted for now. As for the permissions granted to resume activities, they will be removed immediately if rules are not strictly followed and lead to more infected people. Only the original activities such as food stores and pharmacies would then be able to remain open, as permitted in the guidelines in effect since the outbreak.

Companies Are Satisfied with the New Guidelines

Leaders of the industry are satisfied with the government’s plan. They believe it will prevent COVID-19 from spreading while enabling the economy to restart and get back to its feet gradually. Economists view the situation differently as they believe that it will not be enough to boost growth before the end of the year.

The two industries which will benefit the most from these new guidelines will be agriculture and manufacturing of essential goods. It makes perfect sense since these are also the two key components of the population needs at this time. If everything goes well and there are no setbacks created by a new wave of infection, economic activity should be restored to about 30-40% of its full capacity, almost right from the start.