There is no need to panic right now, but there is definitely a need to exercise caution, said Subhrakant Panda, the newly appointed president of industry body FICCI, and that the depth of the Indian economy and corporates facing any “short and sharp” disruption And there’s flexibility. For global supply chain.
“I believe the government is at the top of things,” he said of how the government handled the unseen pandemic – first imposing a lockdown when little was known to keep it under control, then reopening the economy. for, and finally the largest vaccination drive since vaccines became available to propel the world.
The Union Health Secretary has reportedly said States have been written to monitor genome sequencing of new cases to see if there are any mutations.
Panda said, “I don’t think there is any need to panic. But there is a need to be vigilant.” Epidemic.
Stating that he would not like to speculate on the reported outbreak in China, he said, “I hope for the world and I hope for the Chinese population that these are mostly mild cases and it is not disruptive. Sure.” point.”
Chinese cities reportedly seeing wave of Covid-19 cases after Beijing loosens up ‘Covid Zero’ Protocol Who kept the pestilence away.
If this turns into a new outbreak, movement restrictions will follow, derailing the pickup in the Chinese economy – a key pillar of global growth. As a producer to the world, any disruption in exports could result in shortages which could push up inflation internationally.
“From the perspective of India Inc, the Indian economy and Indian corporates are resilient. We have a situation where as far as cyclical sectors are concerned, corporate balance sheets have come down significantly. There is not much you can do beyond this.
“Now if there are areas that are China-specific, they will face disruption. Somebody will have to deal with it and I would expect it to be a small, sharp disruption but again as I said I would not like to speculate And would really like to see it.” More from a human perspective than from an industry perspective that things don’t get out of control.”
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He said that China plays an important role in the global supply chain. “So yes, if there is a disruption it will have an impact but at this point in time I would prefer not to speculate.”
Covid cases have surged in China following the government’s decision to lift strict restrictions, including quarantine and isolation protocols, that had largely insulated the country’s 1.4 billion people from the worst of the pandemic.
Panda said little is known about the true size of the outbreak because China strictly controls news flow. “We will know in a week to 10 days.”
“The concern is that if you have uncontrolled spread of Covid, again there will be disruption to the Chinese economy, which will have an impact on the rest of the world. And the second part is more concerning on some level. That you may have new mutations.” Which can cause problems,” he said.
However, in the case of India, the good news is that almost all adults have been given the double shot and a large number of booster doses have also been received.
“The government is at the helm to ensure that we are monitoring new cases to ensure that there is no genetic mutation,” he said. “From FICCI’s point of view, I hope we do not need to revive the Covid Task Force.”
He said that the government in India handled the pandemic brilliantly.
“How well did we address the pandemic – whether it was in terms of economic support or the fact that we initially locked down because nobody knew what we were dealing with. You didn’t know it What would be kept under control and the only way to deal with the unknown was to have a lockdown.
“But even during the lockdown, I think the central and state governments were very pragmatic in allowing certain sectors like continuous process industries etc to run, which is why we had a good result,” he said.
Also, the vaccination drive was done “absolutely brilliantly”. The government ran the world’s largest vaccination drive smoothly and ensured that all documents were electronic. “It is a matter of great pride that we have our certificates on DigiLocker and in our mobile phones. People are walking around with a little white card in the largest economy, how do you make sure it is genuine? I think it is a great way to was handled,” he said.